Masterpiece Cinema - 25th Hour

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 Lee
Genre: 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!

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