This undernourished family crime epic follows two brothers – one a fun-loving nightclub manager named Bobby (Joaquin Phoenix), another a buttoned-down New York City cop named Joseph (Mark Wahlberg) – whose worlds tragically collide. It’s all fairly familiar until the final third, after Bobby has gone undercover and now must live under witness protection. Still, by then we’re mostly numbed by the typical narrative and the excessive violence poured on by writer-director James Gray (reteaming with his stars from 2000’s smaller but superior The Yards).
