25th Hour | Review

Lee shows poise and Norton shows promise.

At one point, the anything that will go wrong usually does theory called, “Murphy’s Law” could have described Spike Lee’s latest directorial misfires, but thankfully, Lee did “the right thing” by choosing David Benioff novel and screenplay as his next project. This end of the year release is a modest, straightforward picture, with an auteur’s voice that seems a lot mellower.

With the tie-in of a post-9/11 back-drop, the 25th Hour presents the characteristics of New York City, with the people who symbolize this Mecca and by the sights and sounds and smells of seedy nightclubs, high-corporate domains and river fronts that seem like the ideal place to watch tugboats with man’s best friend. A drug dealer Monty (Edward Norton-Red Dragon), has got one last day to spend with his friends before he does his time for the crime, and unlike the guys in Goodfellas, his future home is not a place where comfort exists. This story shows how all the characters struggle with the protagonist’s new reality. His friends from a socially inept high school teacher (Philip Seymour Hoffman-Love Liza) and a high-rolling Wall-Street stock-trader (Barry Pepper-Saving Private Ryan) have opposing attitudes, where as his beautiful girlfriend named Naturelle (Rosario Dawson-Kids) and father (Brian Cox-Adaptation) are his true support system. The narrative takes on a double role, giving us details about the characters with interesting rapports between them, the personages are believable and they are accessible which ultimately helps in confusing the audience when we question who framed him-a loving friend or a jealous enemy? The film doesn’t pull some big escape, beat airport security for a better life, there are alternatives discussed throughout the picture and a dreamy white finale, but Lee reserves us a moment that links Norton’s character to the dog in the beginning with a full circle scheme.

Lee marinates the piece with his usual racial and ethnic rants/commentary, but he keeps it to a minimum giving way to the screenwriter’s voice to shine through. All of his films contain a ‘message’, and it appears that Lee still throbs out some questions, but he doesn’t care to elaborate on the answers. With surprisingly not much of a story, we watch a film that is built-up on conversations and ideas that overlap one another, and somehow, this narrative pattern is able to keep us interested until the end. Norton delivers his best performance since 1998’s American History X, I love the fact that his character doesn’t dwindle down the road of sell-pity or vengeful thinking and the most poignant moment is a sequence of self-cognizant instant that sees his outburst of anger into a mirror that has his reflection look away. There are some problem scenes such as the cops invading the apartment which would have been great for a television show but then there are simple moments of bubble bath affection and a beer with the buddies that explain more about his world and his predicament.

The film does have its problems, the stylized sloppy non-continuation edits are annoying in comparison to the dim-lit lighting used texturing the scenes. 25th Hour is a low-brow film which will fly way under the audience radar screen; this is a drama with a lot of heart and without an angered Irish fury that would have been normally expected for an in the joint film, this one is a winner.

Rating 3 stars