Bobby Green's (Joaquin Phoenix) life seems quite peachy. I mean, running the hottest nightclub in town is one thing, but when you've got an arsenal of drugs in your system and a beautiful woman at your side (Eva Mendes - breast shot approximately 2:35 into the film, including the non-existent credit sequence), that's just bonus points, right?

Well, things aren't that cut and dry when you take in account Bobby's familial background, which includes his straight-laced captain-of-the-police-force brother Joseph and his emotionally cold police chief father Burt. But don't worry; outside of his private love for cocaine and marijuana cigarettes, Bobby manages to balance himself on a moral tightrope. You see, Bobby Green's an okay guy when you get down to it, keeping his nose clean and staying out of anyone's business. 

Unfortunately, personal restraint doesn't necessarily separate Bobby from the seedy underbelly that engulfs his club (not a euphemism for syphilis). Despite the shiny, golden exterior, the nightclub is teeming with the Russian Mafia, a little fact that gets Green's relatives in a huff, resulting in a shakedown that basically amounts to a few hastily spoken words and a lot of finger wagging. Needless to say, the Russian mafia thinks finger pointing is rude, and retaliates with violence - the police's one true enemy! 

Now, as this is, at its heart, a conventional film, you can map out the outcome of We Own The Night, as the Russian Mob manages to take down a few select police officers, specifically the ones related to Bobby, big surprise. And from there, our protagonist must choose to rise, going from spectator to participant, literally transforming into a completely different person before your eyes. But there's a catch: is this transformation, while morally correct, truly necessary? Is Bobby Green a better person for it? 

Let me give you a little background on this review for We Own The Night, the new-ish collaboration between director James Gray and actors Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Whalberg. After my initial viewing, let's just say I wasn't all that impressed. The simplicity of the story almost seemed naive, the straight-ahead directing and limited cast gave the film a direct-to-video vibe. But then something changed my mind, and that something was Troma's newest release, the Lloyd Kaufman-directed Poultrygeist: Night Of The Chicken Dead. A low-class high concept film about zombie chickens (which is also a musical to boot) gave me a firm, much-needed mental-scrubbing; looking back and loving Poultrygeist gave me a new appreciation for We Own The Night. 

Not every movie has to be packed with twist and turns. Not every movie requires an extensive ensemble cast to convince you it's a good movie. Not every movie has to re-invent the wheel. And, God help me, even though I wish it weren't true, not every movie needs a scene where a 500-pound man shits himself inside out. The truth of the matter is We Own The Night takes pride in its efficiency. And, even more importantly, you and I as viewers should be thankful this isn't a film you'll lose track of. You won't be wondering aloud to yourself about messy plot points or characters whose names you can't even remember off the top of your head. I hesitate to use words like “underrated,” or “gem;” let's just say this is a film made for a star system. We Own The Night solidly nails a 3 & ½ star rating out of any film book.

Presentation
While not the most visually exciting film in the world, the presentation itself is quite strong, especially in the first half of the film, which is shrouded in darkness. The blacks always come off as solid and the muted, handsome-though-not-showy color palette gives way to harsh, steely, overexposed blue tones around the halfway point with equal accomplishment.  As you can tell, I'm trying to flower-up a basic “It's good. No complaints” summation - and I'm about to do the same thing with the audio, which is, for the most part, a subtle mix, as the film is more about the family drama than cops shooting cokeheads. But right around the time when you're thinking of turning up your high-definition stereophonic senssurround equipment, BOOM! Donnie Whalberg gets shot in the goddamn face.

Extras
After coming around to the film, I wanted to check out the special features rather than just seeing it as a chore. However, I do have a complaint, and it's mostly personal and therefore probably invalid, but the feature commentary with writer and director James Gray was a bit of a turn-off. And that is entirely due to Gray who, while soft-spoken, obviously intelligent and very informative, comes off as kind of a self-important cock, crowing about his cinematic accomplishment. 

If you want the same amount of information with a fraction of the smugness, check out the video extras, including the fifteen-minute Tension: Creating We Own The Night, which is much more balanced, due to the inclusion of the actors. Police Action: Filming Cops, Cars and Chaos features some prime footage of people bouncing into piles of corrugated cardboard boxes, and finally A Moment in Crime: Creating Late 80's Brooklyn goes into the set and clothing design of the film. Surprisingly enough, the costuming technique used in the film is exactly the same way they film large zombie scenes in horror movie: you stick the more elaborately costumed extras in the front, the more generic, less thoughtfully dressed in the back. Funny, I never made that connection until now. 

And of course, Sony has decided to include trailers for everything but the actual film on the disc. How long has the trailer for Vantage Point been floating around for anyway? It seems like it's been around for a good two years. Is the release taking so long because Sony has decided to go back and digitally fix Forrest Whitiker's eye?

The Bottom Line
A film that slowly creeps up on you, We Own The Night isn't a masterpiece, but it does fall into a slightly overlooked category. A category that is clearly on a sliding scale that features other generic critic blurbs, such as “a miracle of a movie,” and the coveted “Two thumbs up… WAY up!”