Friday, March 30, 2007
Friday Movie Review
Went with Beata (and Alex and Lee) to The Lookout, which is the second good movie with the kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (the other was Brick). It's the directorial debut of Scott Frank, the screenwriter of Malice, Get Shorty, Heaven's Prisoners, and Out of Sight, and it's a darn fine movie. Well done, Scott, who usually puts out an intelligent script, and he did it again this time.
So, what's so good about it? Well, there is the interesting and new to me information about major brain injury. There is an ever growing sense of menace from the bad guys, particularly Gary Spargo played by Brit actor Matthew Goode, who has always played nice guys before (the brother-in-law in Match Point; the lovable and sensible husband in Imagine Me & You). There is the family tragedy of loss and estrangement and guilt. There is the outwitting of the bad guys by a brain injured guy for whom we are rooting mightily as he figures out how to plan and bring off the plan with the rudimentary 'sequencing' skills he has. And there is the achingly sad feeling of what the accident cost the lead and how little of him is actually left. It's a role that is difficult to get just right, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt is magnificent at it. Jeff Daniels is pretty good too in a realistically likeable character--how long has it been since he played one of those? I just have one quibble; do we really let major brain injured people drive? Really?
The much maligned, deputy doughnut, it turns out, is a brave man and master of the Weaver fighting stance--he's knocking them down one after the other with well placed double taps from his unidentified service auto. Extremely menacing looking Bone has sawed off most of the stock and some of the barrels of a fine looking over/under shotgun for his weapon, and he's deadly with it, for a while.
The denouement is heartwarming in a brain injured, limited sort of way and full of acceptance and hope. So as sad as it is, the movie is not a complete downer. It's 99 minutes long, so pretty taut in the action of the plot line, once the action starts, which is actually rather late in the film. I think it's the best thing out there right now.
So, what's so good about it? Well, there is the interesting and new to me information about major brain injury. There is an ever growing sense of menace from the bad guys, particularly Gary Spargo played by Brit actor Matthew Goode, who has always played nice guys before (the brother-in-law in Match Point; the lovable and sensible husband in Imagine Me & You). There is the family tragedy of loss and estrangement and guilt. There is the outwitting of the bad guys by a brain injured guy for whom we are rooting mightily as he figures out how to plan and bring off the plan with the rudimentary 'sequencing' skills he has. And there is the achingly sad feeling of what the accident cost the lead and how little of him is actually left. It's a role that is difficult to get just right, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt is magnificent at it. Jeff Daniels is pretty good too in a realistically likeable character--how long has it been since he played one of those? I just have one quibble; do we really let major brain injured people drive? Really?
The much maligned, deputy doughnut, it turns out, is a brave man and master of the Weaver fighting stance--he's knocking them down one after the other with well placed double taps from his unidentified service auto. Extremely menacing looking Bone has sawed off most of the stock and some of the barrels of a fine looking over/under shotgun for his weapon, and he's deadly with it, for a while.
The denouement is heartwarming in a brain injured, limited sort of way and full of acceptance and hope. So as sad as it is, the movie is not a complete downer. It's 99 minutes long, so pretty taut in the action of the plot line, once the action starts, which is actually rather late in the film. I think it's the best thing out there right now.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 10:54 PM 
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