Greetings again from the darkness. Although there is an air of familiarity about the story ... dutiful son, black sheep, worshiped father, family turmoil, redemption, etc ... writer/director James Grey still manages to create enough drama, tension and believability to make this a quality picture.
It never hurts to have Robert DuVall, Mark Wahlberg and especially Joaquin Phoenix in your three lead roles. Heck even Eva Mendes shows a little acting ability in a couple of scenes. Toss in a shootout in a drug factory, a really cool (but short) car chase in the rain, and hide and seek in the tall reeds and you got an above average cop thriller/family melodrama.
The three leads are well cast and do a nice job of establishing the obvious lifestyle and character differences very quickly. I especially enjoyed the scenes with Phoenix and DuVall. Special note on Alex Veadov who plays a really bad man ... he is scary.
It never hurts to have Robert DuVall, Mark Wahlberg and especially Joaquin Phoenix in your three lead roles. Heck even Eva Mendes shows a little acting ability in a couple of scenes. Toss in a shootout in a drug factory, a really cool (but short) car chase in the rain, and hide and seek in the tall reeds and you got an above average cop thriller/family melodrama.
The three leads are well cast and do a nice job of establishing the obvious lifestyle and character differences very quickly. I especially enjoyed the scenes with Phoenix and DuVall. Special note on Alex Veadov who plays a really bad man ... he is scary.