We Own The Night owes its title to the slogan painted on New York police squad cars and emblazoned on their jacket patches during the 80's at the height of the so-called War On Drugs waged by the police. It was a solemn vow to citizens of the city that the police would crack down forcefully on all drug dealers--who like insects, prey on the innocent usually during nocturnal hours--and bring an end to drug dealing in the streets. With no disrespect meant to the NYPD's best intentions, we all know how well that turned out.

     The story focuses on Bobby Green(Joaquin Phoenix), a nightclub manager in the late 80's, who is successful on all levels of his business: he keeps the house packed, keeps the clients happy, the booze flowing, and thereby pleases his boss, Russian emigrant/fur trader Marat Buzhayev(Moni Moshonov). Unknown to everyone except his girlfriend Amanda(Eva Mendes), Bobby comes from a family of cops; his dad Burt Grusinsky(Robert Duvall) is a high-ranking officer, and brother Joseph(Mark Wahlberg) has just been posted to dad's precinct, right out of the academy. Bobby and Amanda briefly attend Joe's welcoming party, and it is here we see that relations between Bobby and his family are strained. Burt and Joe see him as a self-indulgent, disrespectful black sheep, and to a large degree, he is. They seek his help though because a new narcotics task force has been formed, which Joe will head, and their first target is suspected Russian drug dealer Vadim Nezhinski(Alex Veadov), the nephew of Bobby's own boss. Vadim is a regular at his nightclub, and they want Bobby to help bring him down. Bobby couldn't care less, and refuses.

     We Own The Night is also about family relations--what forms them, what strains them, and how it might be possible to repair them, depending on what circumstances arise. When Joe leads a raid upon Bobby's club and provokes Vadim, retribution from the mobster comes swiftly in the form of a bullet to the head. Joe barely survives, and once Vadim--unaware of Bobby's connec-tion to the cops--admits his culpability to Bobby while simultane-ously seeking his aid in running drugs through the club, the transformation of Bobby into a righteous man begins.

     We Own The Night is only the third film by director James Gray(Little Odessa, The Yards), and the second pairing for Wahlberg and Phoenix under his guidance. Considering that it's taken Gray seven years from his last flick to get this one off the ground, that should say something about how uneven his guid-ing vision might be(combined, his first two films made less than $2 million at the domestic box office). The movie has some promising ideas, and begins to set them up well; when Bobby agrees to Vadim's plan yet goes in undercover to one of his refinery houses, a normal cop drama might have the dealer suspect Bobby of being wired yet not have him find it. Vadim is crafty however, and finds the bug(planted in a cigarette lighter). It's only through the use of a prearranged code word that the cops' last minute intervention saves his life. He and Amanda are put into protective custody, but when Vadim escapes from the police and finds out where Bobby and his girl are being kept, the Russian's wrath comes down hard once more.

     The movie--steeped in 80's music and fairly believable sett-ings(an appearance by former New York mayor Ed Koch as himself does help lend a type of authenticity to the proceedings) --delivered for a good while, until the rather expected death of one character and Bobby's betrayal by another. Such incidenc-es show a marked lack of capable writing(the script was also written by Gray), as it's not so much a question of whether certain turns and betrayals will happen within the story, as much as when they will happen, and how long it will take for us to get to them. This is the same fatal flaw which doomed the recent The Invasion...and we know how well that did at the box office. The characters here are marginally believable as human beings, although with such a lackluster script to work from, it's no wonder this is not the best acting either Wahlberg or Phoenix has ever done, the latter actor seeming almost bored most of the time, no matter what is going on around him. Eva Mendes is a decent actress, but with not much to go on except her looks and some pretty mediocre career choices thus far, it's no wonder she hasn't achieved true leading lady status. If she keeps appearing in films of this low-rent caliber, she will never get to carry a film on her own.

     Alex Veadov as the villainous Russian Vadim is also an unim-pressive threat, as he has neither the swagger nor appearance to strike fear into anyone's heart. Certain contrivances in the story--such as Bobby and Amanda instantly quitting their cocaine habit once they go into protective custody, or him sudd-enly being admitted to the force under "special circumstances" are patently ridiculous. The final confrontation between Bobby and Vadim packs no punch, and serves as an unsatisfying conclusion to this section of the story. There is a brief coda with Bobby finally being officially admitted to the force, but long before then, I ceased to care about him or anyone else in the film. Even the presence of the always-brilliant Robert Duvall didn't help...and if he can't save a movie, nothing can.

     It's a shame that We Own The Night couldn't deliver more faithfully on the story it sets up. Perhaps in another seven years or so, James Gray will get his act together. Until then, if you want to watch a truly satisfying police drama which sticks to the promise to deliver on the situations it sets up, then just watch The Departed.