Okay, let's start with the good. The acting is pretty strong (I like these stars), the direction passionate, some of the writing interesting and the late 70's/80's NY period makes a nice choice of time frame and it's effectively conjured for this cops vs. drug-dealers tale.
The film on the whole is bleak and laborious. At its core, the picture endeavors to tell the story of two brothers -- one a stern cop, the other a partying club manager and their chief of police father. There's some very serious drama winding these three together despite an energy to tear them apart -- I bought in. But, because of either unbelievable or undeveloped progressions in the telling, I lost my suspension of belief and instead was left with only a stripped down version of suspense to draw me along.
I simply do not "buy," the police letting a notorious bad guy escape from their custody when this bad guy had been killing cops and even threatened to kill the chief of police personally. I don't buy it. Among other difficult things to swallow, I don't think technology was advanced enough to put a microphone, batteries, and a transmitter inside a working cigarette lighter. And even then, simply carrying it in a pocket would only create a muffled inaudible sound.
Nonetheless, if you like a slow brooding suspense film, maybe you'll like this one. The title "We Own the Night" was the motto of the 1980s era NYPD street crimes unit.
-- Book Contest --
|