The Lookout (2007) November 1, 2007
Posted by gproject in : Cinema, Recently Viewed , trackbackDirected by: Scott Frank
The journey from writer to director is not always a smooth one, and experience, even successful experience, in the first field does not necessarily translate over to success in the latter. The Lookout represents this very vocation change for Scott Frank, who those in the know may recognise as the serial book-adaptor for the well-received Get Shorty and Out of Sight (both books by Elmore Leonard). His further work also includes adapting Minority Report from the Philip K Dick short story as well as updating Flight of The Phoenix for its 2004 remake. This time, not only is Frank dealing with the more responsible title of director, he’s also working with a piece of his own original creation – so, is he destined to be the next Paul Haggis?
Centring itself around the life of Chris Pratt, the film tell the story of how an avoidable car accident turned this once admired high school ice hockey champion into a retreating young adult with a brain injury. He struggles to sequence events correctly in his mind and suffers from enraged highs and lows as he tries to deal with his condition. Chris also works as a night cleaner at the local bank; a job which brings him to the attention of Gary Spargo. Despite living with a blind friend named Lewis, Chris is quickly sucked in by the ‘family’ that Gary and his gang provide - only later does he discover that the group actually wish to rob the bank that Chris works at, leaving their new disabled accomplice to take the blame.
On the surface, this is a crime thriller that tries to mix its interesting characters into the robbery story in a meaningful way, although there is really only one interesting character. Chris Pratt forms this film’s only explicitly unique element with his condition adding something new to an otherwise by-the-numbers heist story. Sadly, the film doesn’t always make the best use of this and so while it makes for an interesting reason for Chris to collude with the devious thieves (whoever has the money has the power, as the tagline reads), he then follows the standard compliance / regret / revenge narrative that any character would take.
The script is perfectly fine and Scott Frank actually does a good job holding the movie together in both his role as writer and director. Cinematographer Alar Kivilo helps Frank bring his story to the screen in a visually interesting way, especially the manner in which Chris’s sequencing internalisations are sometimes visualised to aide the audience’s understanding of his thought process. There is also the rather out-of-place jump to handheld DV cameras during the ‘action’ sequence which is extremely Michael Mann in feel and doesn’t quite fit the tone of this film, but it’s a very minor point and may not even register for some.
As a huge fan of his last film, Brick [review], I was excited to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the lead in this movie, he alone forming a large part of the reason behind my drive to see The Lookout. He’s very good too and a young actor who I think still has plenty to give to Hollywood, even though he seems to prefer the low(er)-budget filmmaking experiences. His character however is, as previously stated, the most interesting in the piece and there’s a subtleness to him which Levitt can capture and display to the audience, so it’s as much a good casting decision as anything else.
Other lead roles are held comfortably by the likes of Matthew Goode, who is just the right amount of friendly and menacing to be believable as the leader of the thief-pack, while veteran Jeff Daniels plays a blind man with impressive precision but barely gets enough screen time to really show it. Meanwhile, Isla Fisher is a love interest of sorts, although she is promptly forgotten about and come the third act has disappeared completely, the same of which can be said for Carla Gugino, who gets a fairly high billing but appears for no more than three minutes very early on. Whether her character appeared again but was left on the cutting room floor is unknown, but it certainly does seem like a redundant appearance if this isn’t the case.
In the end, The Lookout is an entertaining flick and not without its share of positive characteristics, including a strong cast and a well-devised central character. But it ultimately falls down by being neither thrilling enough as a thriller, nor probing enough as a character piece. It admirably jumps some of the more obvious clichés, but reveals a plot that barely twists on its way to a predictable conclusion. The film is not really like any of the movies it is being compared to; examples of which include Brick, that besides the involvement of Levitt it has none of the invention of; and Memento, a piece with a similarly disabled lead character but an infinitely more ingenious way of using it. There’s no chance of calling this a disaster though, since those comparisons are unfair and against two very strong films. Instead, expect to be entertained for the 99 minute duration, but not to take much away from a film which fails to live up to its intriguing premise.
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