>>PREVIEW
THE LOOKOUT
STARRING Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels and Isla Fisher
DIRECTED BY Scott Frank
Opens Friday, March 30
Check listings
With the current flood of high-budget, car-crash-over-substance, violence-porn action movies, it’s become rare for a film focusing on crime to truly bring viewers into the mind of a troubled protagonist. There are a few obvious exceptions, such as recent offerings from Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan, and writer/director Scott Frank’s The Lookout is a film that achieves this effect as well.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (of Third Rock From the Sun and 2005’s fantastic neo-noir Brick) is uniformly excellent as Chris Pratt, a physically and emotionally damaged 21-year-old learning how to restructure his life after a tragic accident. The former star athlete has been reduced to a shell of his former self, struggling with memory, staying awake and other seemingly normal tasks. Through repetition and almost Wagnerian consistency, the camera becomes a window into Pratt’s guilt-ridden psyche, allowing us to see how he operates, views the world and imagines it.
The supporting cast is successful as well, highlighted by Jeff Daniels’ riveting performance as Pratt’s blind roommate Lewis. The acting veteran seems to be on a roll lately, and with both this film and The Squid & The Whale under his belt, here’s to hoping that he sticks with smaller character-driven flicks.
Gary Spargo (Matthew Goode) is a believable baddie, as is Greg Dunham as the Dick Tracy-esque Bone. Love interest Luvlee Lemons (Isla Fisher) is fairly one-sided, but does pull off the naiveté well.
Besides the acting, the film’s biggest strength is easily its pacing. Ever so slowly revealing details, the payoff is immense whenever a secret is illuminated. Franks’s screenplay is so tightly wound that when events get tense, you’ll have a tough time not shouting at the screen. The movie’s returning motives also make every seemingly random element make sense later, without seeming contrived a la the M. Night Shyamalan "School of Twists."
Filmed in Winnipeg (but set in Kansas), The Lookout’s desolate small-town environs are perfectly suited to the story’s serious subject matter. This is a film about history repeating, and it’s so well done that it warrants repeated viewings as well. |
Copyright ©2007 FFWD. All rights reserved.