By Sam Allard | 
See the issue: October 2007

Columbia Pictures
Release: Oct. 12
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Robert Duvall, Eva Mendes

Professional athletes, like celebrities from every other walk of life, will tell you that making money is great, but without the love and support of family, it’s all for nothing. Family loyalty through triumph and adversity is a hallmark of the human experience, one that shows up repeatedly in sports—and in an incredible film releasing this month.

Writer/director James Gray returns with We Own the Night, a frightening glimpse into drug trafficking in New York City in the 1980s. Bobby Green [Phoenix], a successful nightclub owner, becomes embroiled in a heated battle between Russian drug lords and the city’s police force, for which his brother Joseph [Wahlberg] and father Burt [Duvall] both work.

Once people start dying and Joseph gets wounded in an assassination attempt, Green’s sense of family honor is resurrected. He fights back against the criminals and felons wreaking havoc on the city and his club. More important, he fights out of love for his family, to win back their respect.

Rate this article:   1  5