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25th Hour - 1/10/03 - R - 134m
Ed Norton
- Monty Brogan
Barry Pepper - Frank Slaugherty
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Jakob Elinsky
Director: Spike Lee
LYN
David Benioff (writer) and Spike Lee (director) present us with
an interesting film about a life examined. An extraordinary contrast from
the last film I saw "About Schmidt". : ) Anyway…the story…Monty
Brogan (Edward Norton) a NY drug dealer has been given 24 hours (more
or less) to wrap up the loose ends of his life before he is sent off to
prison (for what else, but dealing drugs).
Side Note:
Funny, but this was the only part of the movie that bothered me. I thought
if you were tried, convicted, and sentence passed, you pretty much left
the courtroom to begin your extended stay at some lovely state run concrete
resort facilities. But, this must not be the case, since Monty was sentenced
and then handed a day pass, after which he was expected to report to the
before mentioned institution the following morning, and on his own accord
mind you. I'm sorry, if I had a 7 year prison stretch staring me directly
in the face, and I was told I could take a day off and show up the next
morning bright and early for delousing, the only thing in my life I would
be re-examining would be where I wanted to relocate and what my new name
would be. : )
But back to our hero… Monty takes this golden opportunity and literally
soars with it. He sees old friends, family, loved ones, and business associates.
He has been given a gift, a chance to examine his own life (for which
he take complete responsibility for) and set things right. Not in a vengeful
way, but more Zen-like. And In turn the people that he is bidding his
somewhat final ado's are given the same prospect of self-examination.
There is a Chinese Proverb that simply asks "What if today had been
your last day on Earth?" In essence, knowing this, what might have
you done differently today? And with this 20/20 foresight, Monty is very
poised despite the difficult task ahead. As I'm sure not many of us would
be...given the same charge.
But in closing, the movie was purely wonderful, and the acting, superb.
It was nothing more than a truly enjoyable film. I'm tempted into picking
it as my "Best Film of the Year", but it is still very, very
early in the season, so I'll hold off on that for a little bit. : )
Also, on a more personal note, I found Spike Lee's imagery of New York
City in the film's beginning very refreshing and quite uplifting. Thank
you Spike…Great work, and Bravo.
Lyn