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!"

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.