I saw We Own the Night with my dad as part of a double feature. Maybe it's just because the surprisingly brilliant Gone Baby Gone was a difficult act to follow, but if the latest work from writer/director James Gray doesn't suffer by comparison to that masterful thriller, than it merely suffers. I left the theater that day with large chunks of the movie already evaporating from my brain. I imagine the reason that the film was so incredibly inconsequential is because it borrows every plot point, every character attribute, every decent action sequence from another, better, more solid movie. Nothing carries any weight. Even Mark Wahlberg's performance feels like it was cut and pasted from The Departed or Four Brothers, with a lot of the depth left out. I don't blame Wahlberg for this, but the poor writing that gives him very little to do beyond that. Joaquin Phoenix's character has an arc that doesn't feel at all believable or compelling. The climactic battle is straight out of The Bourne Identity. Unfortunately that's about all I remember with regard to specifics; I give it six stars because I was at least moderately entertained while watching it, even if it was completely insubstantial. Also, Eva Mendes, as always, looks gorgeous.
Review of We Own the Night
