25TH HOUR
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Monty Brogan has drawn a seven-year
sentence for drug dealing. His life as he
knew it is coming to an end. He as just one
last day of freedom to tie up this chapter of
his life. He plans to get together with his
friends and family for the last time and get
things straight with them. Like a man who is
on the way to his death he is getting his
affairs in order. Edward Norton gives a
poignant performance, but the film gives in a
little too much to sentimentality. Rating: 7
(0 to 10), low +2 (-4 to +4)
Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) is a likable sort who had his life more or less together. He has friends, including Naturelle (Rosario Dawson) about whom he is serious. His father James (Brian Cox) and he are on good terms at last. He has just recently stopped dealing drugs for the Russian Mafia and he is going straight. Then the police find drugs and money in his apartment, a tie with the recent past that he has not yet cut. Now he is going to prison for seven years, a victim of the New York's Rockefeller laws. Thinking about the sentence that is about to start is tearing Monty up. He broods on how much he has lost and thinking about just what the seven years is going to be like. His good looks which have helped him until now will just make him a sexual target in prison and he dreads the thought of it.
Monty has one more night before he must either turn himself in or become a fugitive. On his last day of freedom he is getting together with his best friends for one final night of fun and to say good-bye to them. Most of the film is the story of his only remaining day. His friends are stock dealer Frank Slaughtery (Barry Pepper) and awkward and single high school English teacher Jacob Elinsky (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who has his own crisis. Monty has broken rules and Elinsky is boyishly uneasy that he will be tempted to do the same. In his case, he is being tempted and manipulated by a nymphet from his English class (played by Anna Paquin). Monty needs one more piece of closure. When the police raided his apartment, they seemed to know exactly where to look for the drugs and money. Somebody told them where to look. Monty wants to know who it was.
25TH HOUR was directed by Spike Lee from a screenplay by David Benioff, from Benioff's own novel. There is some action and even violence, but for the most part the story is driven by dialog. Monty's father blames himself for his son's problems and Monty wants to release him from that guilt. At times the writing could be a little subtler. To make Monty likable from the very beginning, the pre-credit sequence has him rescuing a dog who has been badly injured. This is as manipulative as any device Steven Spielberg would have used. A sequence toward the end of the film also seems a little overly sentimental. This Monty does not seem like the same person who in another sequence curses all the ethnic groups he sees in Manhattan. There is another example of going tapping a little into overly-emotional material. The film returns repeatedly to the image of the wreckage of the World Trade Center and frequently the beams of the two searchlights that have temporarily replaced it. They echo the wreckage of Monty's life and the quick last-day fixes he is attempting.
Rodrigo Prieto's photography frequently irritates with use of what is probably 12 frame-per-second shooting. The movement of images is jerky. But there are moments of poignancy in this film and I rate 25th HOUR a 7 on the 0 to 10 scale and a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Copyright 2003 Mark R. Leeper
========== X-RAMR-ID: 33878 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 833950 X-RT-TitleID: 1119014 X-RT-AuthorID: 1309 X-RT-RatingText: 7/10
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