Greetings and salutations. Wait. Did I just say that? God, I'm a nerd.
This week;
25th Hour
Starring Edward Norton, Rosario Dawson, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Brian Cox, Anna Paquin.Written by David Benioff (Based on his book)Directed by Spike LeeGenre: Drama
Released: 2002
Running time: 135 minutes.
Rated: R (American rating for Strong Language and Violence).
IMDb link: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0307901/
I
have no idea how much attention this movie got in the United States,
but here in my native Australia it was all but ignored. I think the
most I saw about it when it was in theatres was a single review in the
street press. This baffles me, because its one of the best movies Ive
ever seen. Of course, its no secret amongst my friends that I have a
big ol non-sexual man-crush on Edward Norton (and a big ol crush on
Rosario Dawson, minus the non-sexual and man aspects of the other
infatuation), but that has very little to do with this. 25th Hour is
just an amazing movie.
All you need to know that it's going to
be intense is the one sentence premise of the film; a man whos been
sentenced to 7 years in jail for drug trafficking spends his last
twenty-four hours of freedom with his friends and family, all the while
re-evaluating his life and the choices that led him to his current
predicament.
I mean, damn. You have to admit, that sounds like
some heady stuff. But then you throw something else into the mix;
namely, that this was the first major film made in New York after the
events of September 11. And suddenly, in addition to the human drama
you have powering the story, you also have this underlying issue of a
city struggling to come to grips with this new world they've been very
suddenly and violently thrown into.
All the acting is
superb, but what do you expect when youve assembled a cast of such
calibre and given them such powerful material to work with? The movie
consists of one fantastic scene after another, with a monologue
delivered by Edward Norton being a particularly awe-inspiring moment.
Spike Lee is a director I can take or leave. For every magnificent film
he gives us, he delivers something else like Crooklyn or Girl 6, movies
that start off promisingly but wind up as being fairly forgettable. Not
so here - Lee constructs his story expertly, creating a dark, sombre
tone with very real moments of humour, and he interweaves the story of
Nortons character Monty Brogan with images and ruminations about
September 11s aftermath with absolute skill.
When writing this
column, I'm off concerned about exactly how much I should rave about a
film. Of course, the entire point of this column is to rave about
movies I think deserve it, but if you build something up too heavily in
someones mind, theyll often come away feeling a little let down by what
they end up with.
With 25th Hour that concern is of course
there, but of all the films I've taken a look at so far, this is the
one that Im most confident that it can be seen by pretty much anyone
and recognized as the great film that it is.
Next week: I don't care what anyone else says! I liked Vanilla Sky!
Tags:
Movies drama Film Family 
