Monty Lives In New York; Doyle Is A Dog; Murphy Had A Law
Written: Dec 18 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent performances
Cons: Sometimes disjointed
The Bottom Line: Sometimes it's off, but sometimes it's funny and touching.
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| bondagewound's Full Review: The 25th Hour |
This opinion reveals as little as possible about movie's plot.
I must start out by stating that I hate it when a novelist adapts his own book for the screen. David Benioff adapted the screenplay for Spike Lee's new joint "The 25th Hour" from his own novel of the same name. While it is understandable that an author would like to have his/her work preserved, many fall in love with every line, every seen, and every detail. They let all these things drag behind their screenplay. I am reminded here of "The Cider House Rules." Of course this isn't to say that it doesn't always work right when someone else adapts a screenplay; here I am reminded of the two "Harry Potter" movies, which sucked royally. But sometimes an author is served best by letting everyone else do the work; here I am reminded of "Fight Club," the author of which, Chuck Palaniuk, had minimal involvement in the actual filmmaking process. "The 25th Hour" is a film that goes wrong ever so subtly. This film is sort of a two or three trick pony; sometimes it screws up the trick and has to try again.
The film opens with the sound of a yelping dog being beaten. The character of Montgomery Brogan, played exceedingly well by Edward Norton, comes to the rescue. He spends a lot of time talking about whether or not to rescue the dog with his heavy Russian friend. The two of them are budding drug dealers. This scene happens some time before the rest of the movie (one can tell because the seriously injured dog has had time to make a full recovery by the time the credits end). Enter now the movies first problem. Most of the scenes could have taken place in any order and some feel like they do in fact, take place only in memory. I find it impossible to believe that an investigation of a man's apartment can turn over lots of money and heroin, and that he can be questioned, tried, and sentenced in the same day as his giant going away party hosted by the Russian mob. While it is all well and good for a film to play with chronology this film has no effective way of making it clear. This is only becomes a problem if the film gets chronologically playful in one or two scenes, which this one does.
As for the rest of the film, it is obsessed with conversations between the characters and allows almost all the possible permutations to occur. Sometimes it goes about in quite a natural manner, and sometimes it's incredibly forced. The conversations themselves are never dull. It seems as though most of them are shown in a single shot. Again, this is often smooth and sometimes it is intrusive. The camera swoops around and follows the characters with very few cuts. To his credit, Spike Lee never allows the pacing to be off for a second, except when he gets bogged down with the location of New York City. He seems to have gone to great pains to cram all possible locations in to this film. There is even one scene where Monty has a conversation with himself and lists off every stereotype living in the city (I liked it because it is guaranteed to offend), panning through every neighborhood, and painting the worst face on everything (the neighborhood where the film was showing was conveniently left out, despite the fact that it deserves a blasting more than any other).
Despite it's few-yet-prominent problems though, the performances make this movie worth watching. Edward Norton plays an excellent and likeable straight man and the movie wastes none of it's energy trying to add complexity to his character. At the best of times, Norton allows the character to flow as one allows of himself. He does occasionally disappear for extended periods of time while other characters have their respective conversations. These conversations make it evident that no one is innocent. I really liked how the movie sometimes stresses that Monty isn't the best of cats, and that neither are his friends ("He makes his fortune off the pain and misery of others." "Well so do you."). His friends include Jakob Elinsky (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a teacher with a hard-on for a student (Anna Paquin), Frank Slattery (Barry Pepper), a player in the game of high finance who is happiest when those around him are scrambling to make up for their mistakes, and Naturelle Rivera (Rosario Dawson), Monty's girlfriend under suspicion who's breasts manage to stay covered and get more attention than anything else in the movie. There is also Monty's father, who is guilt-ridden about everything, and drives Monty to prison.
So while this movie isn't incredible, it is ambitious. If there is one thing I hate more than a novelist adapting his book for the screen it is a movie that follows formula and convention simply out of a desire to exist. This movie really shoots for a high target and even though it misses occasionally, the offense is easily forgiven. There have been thousands of films that did less when they could have done everything.
Recommended:
Yes
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bondagewound
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