SummaryBobby Green has turned his back on the family business. The popular manager of El Caribe, the legendary Russian-owned nightclub in Brooklyn's Brighton Beach, he has changed his last name and concealed his connection to a long line of distinguished New York cops. For Bobby, every night is a party; he greets friends and customers or dances with his... Read More
Directed By:James Gray
Written By:James Gray
We Own the Night
Metascore
Mixed or Average
59
User score
Generally Favorable
6.5
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
58% Positive
19 Reviews
19 Reviews
42% Mixed
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
83
At its core, it's an exploration of the demands and obligations of brotherly love, staged with honesty, originality and a surprising spark of intelligence.
75
The movie really belongs to Phoenix, who gives a haunting performance with just the right degree of intensity.
User score
Generally Favorable
58% Positive
34 Ratings
34 Ratings
36% Mixed
21 Ratings
21 Ratings
7% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
Aug 8, 2014
10
It is difficult to see a movie this great and made so recently get so little love on the internet. James Gray is a superb filmmaker, though I don't really like, at all, his "Two Lovers", also with Joaquin. Anyway, he and the whole crew of Night don't deserve less than the highest plaudits. I don't feel that I can carry the only positive user review on metacritic. At this writing only one other person has bothered to write a review with the dismal score of a 4/10. I haven't got the words because I am utterly bummed. Easily this could have been in the running for the Academy Awards had the critics made it their darling. This is proof that when they don't want you to like something, you--not me--won't like it. If they want you to love it, you'll love it. I have to wonder how they got pissed off, were they not invited to an advanced viewing? I wanted to see a whole row of 100's, but the top score is an 83! To humor you, I liked this movie more than Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, also a Perfect Ten to me, also out in 2007. There is cop/crime/russians in Night and Promises both, and a familial connection as far as crime fathers are concerned and loyalty to them; but Night is far more personal and human with a literal blood family carrying the majority of the drama. If you like Promises you'll see that there are plenty of differences between the two films, and the similarities are only skin deep, so no slurs should be made about either one being the copy of the other. Also see the less similar but not less superb End of Watch.
Jan 5, 2015
9
Um filme recheado de brilhantes atuações Joaquin Phoenix,Robert Duvall,Eva Mendes e Mark Wahlberg. Um super filme,a ovelha negra da família (Joaquin Phoenix) se coloca nos eixos entra para polícia depois que seu irmão é quase morto por aqueles que eram seus amigos. Agora junto com o irmão (Mark Wahlberg) e o pai (Robert Duvall) ambos da polícia combatem traficantes que enfestam a Nova York dos anos 80.
70
Adequately acted and flecked with the required quota of action to satisfy genre fans, pic recalls numerous good police dramas of the 1970s, but mostly in superficial ways that bring nothing new to the table.
63
Phoenix gives a nice performance as a man caught between loyalties but blind to the realities all around him, but Gray's screenplay is filled with clunky, Dr. Phil-sounding aphorisms that stop the movie cold.
58
This is a perfectly serviceable thriller. It's just not the New York family crime saga it clearly wants to be.
50
The problem with We Own the Night is that it mistakes sentiment for profundity, and takes its ideas about character and fate more seriously than it takes its characters and their particular fates. “I feel light as a feather,” Bobby says in a crucial scene, at which point the movie starts to sink like a stone.
40
Gray's signature long takes and overhead shots are in evidence and add to the film's fatalistic tone, and one rainy car-chase sequence is a real keeper. But, overall, it's impossible to shake the film's gloomy sense of eternal repetition.
Nov 7, 2021
7
I'm surprised how this film has been rather lukewarmly received. This metropolitan detective movie has actually some quality, the shots are interesting, the story too and the acting of Phoenix and Duvall is fantastic. It may be not an half masterpiece of its genre but the film is more than pleasant.
Jul 25, 2019
6
A bland cop movie that doesn't really stand out as much as I remember. The acting was as bland as the blue filter they placed in the movie.
Mar 14, 2011
4
This movie just didn't cut it. A guy (J. Phoenix) doesn't go from being a nightclub manager inside a drug den to becoming a decorated cop simply because his high-ranking father got killed. Mark Wahlberg gets shot execution style but lives... only in the movies. The plot lines aren't well developed. The viewer never gets to identify with any of the characters because they're all generic stereotypes, and many of the scenes are incredibly boring. I'm glad I watched this on DVD and could use the fast-forward button; an hour-and-45 minute flick took just 45 minutes to watch, and it still lacked entertainment value.
Production Company:
- Columbia Pictures
- 2929 Productions
- Industry Entertainment
Release Date:Oct 12, 2007
Duration:1 h 57 m
Rating:R
Tagline:Two brothers on opposite sides of the law. Beyond their differences lies loyalty.
Awards
Golden Rooster Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Cannes Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
Visual Effects Society Awards
• 1 Nomination
