Joaquin Phoenix owns the darkly brooding 'Night'

The theme of this absorbing crime drama centers on a simple idea: Blood is thicker than powder.

Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg play brothers who have chosen radically different paths. Wahlberg is a cop, like their father (an always great Robert Duvall), and Phoenix manages a nightclub and runs with a coked-out crowd. (The story is set in the late '80s, which the soundtrack, heavy on Blondie and Bowie, reminds us potently.)

Duvall regards Wahlberg as the family's fair-haired boy, while Phoenix, with his shady job, is an embarrassment. Phoenix is unfazed by the familial contempt and is content to keep his distance, until Wahlberg is attacked by a Russian gangster (Alex Veadov) associated with Phoenix's nightclub.

The assault on his brother galvanizes him, and Phoenix offers to spy on a ruthless Russian-dominated cocaine operation. But he's not the only one at risk with his surveillance efforts: He's imperiling his girlfriend (Eva Mendes), too.

Though it's not quite film noir, We Own the Night has a darkly brooding style that suits the material. Screenwriter/director James Gray (The Yards) does a better job directing than writing. Some of the story becomes melodramatic, and the dialogue can be banal, but the performances are strong, marked by conflicted emotions. There are some well-played lines, such as "Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6," along with such prosaic exhortations as "You're going to get yourself killed!"
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The movie really belongs to Phoenix, who gives a haunting performance with just the right degree of intensity. Though the story — a cops-vs.-gangsters contest with undercurrents of a Cain-and-Abel saga — is not breaking any new ground, it has a resounding redemptive quality that draws us in.

Via usatoday