On the surface, We Own the Night is a gritty 1980s crime drama about tough Brooklyn cops, suave Russian drug lords, a successful nightclub manager and his sultry Puerto Rican girlfriend. But at heart, it’s an emotional family drama. Characters spend a lot of time sitting around, talking about their feelings – which is fine, but just like real life, that’s sometimes awkward.

After playing the dark and brooding Johnny Cash in the 2005 Walk the Line, Joaquin Phoenix makes his triumphant in We Own the Night. This time Phoenix plays a dark and brooding nightclub manager, really stepping out of his box there. Phoenix’s character turned his back on his family and the family business – police work. Mark Wahlberg is doing the cop thing again as Phoenix’s brother, and Robert Duval is there as daddy and deputy chief of police.

When Wahlberg, Duval and gang decide to bust a suave Russian drug lord and end his drug-lording, they approach Phoenix. Hey, we need your help busting this suave Russian drug lord who frequents your club hot spot which is oddly disco-ish for this being the ’80s. When the Russian mob instead comes after his family, Phoenix must decide whether to give up his disco club lifestyle to help take down the mafia.

And then some other things happen. People get shot. It is very sad. Despite the somewhat lacking plot, writer-director James Grey manages to give the characters real weight and depth, making We Own the Night an emotional, character-driven drama about the family bonds that cannot be broken. Wahlberg and Phoenix are two brothers living on different dimensions of the same universe, who must ultimately get over their differences to survive.

Grey takes their family drama and wraps it in an atmosphere of dread. The color scheme is dark, the violence is frequent and happy disco beats often clash with daunting silence, creating an audible tension.

Shocker of shockers, We Own the Night doesn’t go crazy with special effects. Yup, there is nary a fake CGI car flipping off bridges or giant robot tearing apart the city. It’s oddly refreshing.