Posted: 12/30/02
25th Hour (2002)
by Hank Yuloff
Hank's scathing review of Spike Lee's latest 'joint.'
The trailer sure looked good.
A bunch of great story parts that could come together. We see Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) asking his friend Francis to do him a big favor. Since the story is about a convicted drug trafficker's last night of freedom he MUST be planning to run away from the seven-year sentence he is supposed to report for the next morning.
With so many good elements, I thought, surely would add up to a good film. It's directed by Spike Lee, for gosh sakes - he won't leave me wanting like, say, David Lynch. So at the end of the movie, all I got to do was sigh, knowing I was going to have to write this one in something less than glowing tones.
Since the movie as a whole won't give you a lift, let's talk about some of the pieces. Norton (Red Dragon, The Score, Fight Club) is a drug dealer that seems to have avoided the "using" part of it, but someone turned him in to the DEA. They want to know his source but whether it's honor among thieves or the fact he knows his supplier would kill him, he doesn't squeal. So at the beginning of the movie, he has 24 hours before turning himself in to prison. It's never explained why a convicted drug dealer was allowed to go free between sentencing and the commencement of jail time. He seems to be overly concerned with what is going to happen to his pretty face in jail.
Brogan's friends are played by Philip Seymour Hoffman (Red Dragon, Almost Famous, State and Main, Flawless) and Barry Pepper (61* and The Green Mile). Pepper plays s fast-track stock and commodities broker who is most interested in what kind of a "Tom Leykis 9" he can have sex with next. Hoffman plays Jakob Elinsky (Hoffman), a trust fund collecting son of rich parents who decided to become a teacher. He's in his 30's and has a crush on one of his students. I really like Hoffman. He always gives his all and entertains in every role.
The crush is Anna Paquin (Almost Famous, X-Men). She can still play the 16-year-old and definitely fills "The Little Hottie" role that populate so many of Jones' New York films (Mira Sorvino in Summer of Sam, Milla Jovovich and Rosario Dawson from He Got Game, Tisha Campbell in School Daze and Joie Lee in Do the Right Thing, She's Gotta Have It, School Daze, Mo Better Blues). Joining her as eye-candy (though with a much deeper character) is Rosario Dawson (MiB2) in her 2nd Lee film, this time playing Norton's girlfriend.
There were lots of great scenes in the movie, including a 5 minute soliloquy by Norton describing exactly what is wrong with New York. Place that against another 5 minutes of Lee's tributes to the World Trade Center and you get a movie that will play well in the Big Apple. His father in the picture, Brian Cox (The Ring, Adaptation, Manhunter), also takes us on a long, wondrous and beautiful winding road through the rest of Norton's life...only to leave us disappointed.
All of these really great scenes and actors just don't amount to enough and I think you will spend at least some time checking your watch for the end of this 2 hour 24 minute movie saying "will he or won't he?" just to be left wanting for something more.
Hank Yuloff is not a New York kind of guy. He thinks that Spike and Woody should get together and make one final whine fest about the city and let it go.
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