MOVIE REVIEW: 'The Lookout'


From the March 30 Oregonian ...




Scott Frank made his name writing smart thrillers for smart directors. His screenplays for "Out of Sight," "Minority Report," "Get Shorty" and "Dead Again" are tightly plotted and snappy to the ears; actual grown-up professionals are pushing your thrill-buttons.

And now, with "The Lookout," Mr. Frank gets the chance to direct one of his scripts. The result is a terrific little crime flick that makes it clear Frank was paying attention while his dialogue was being filmed by Soderbergh.

"Lookout" is a snow-bound noir (D.K. Holm would call it a film glacé ) about a brain-damaged kid sucked into a bank heist. Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) was a high-school hockey star who killed two friends when he crashed his convertible on a Kansas highway.

Four years later, he's recovering from massive frontal-lobe damage. He has poor impulse control, bad motor skills and a limited ability to "sequence" events. He's the janitor at a bank, and his life is filled with careful routines and the pity of those who know he was great.

I love the un-showy way Gordon-Levitt plays Chris. (Between this and "Brick," the actor seems to be using his "3rd Rock from the Sun" royalty checks to finance a film career full of dark integrity.) Chris isn't stupid, just addled; the way he bristles when people treat him like he's dumb makes it understandable when a sexpot (Isla Fisher) and a con man (Matthew Goode) flatter him into helping them empty the vault at work.

Everything goes horribly wrong, of course. And Chris has to find his way out of a jam -- much as he's finding his way out of his injury -- using only the familiar tools and places he can comprehend.

Frank keeps his goals modest and his pacing crisp. The movie treads into "Out of Sight" territory, in the best possible sense: "The Lookout" is packed with sharply sketched characters, terrific acting, funny dialogue and cinematography that's more careful than it looks. Goode is fun to watch -- he plays the heist ringleader like an evil, charismatic, articulate Kevin Federline, if that makes any sense. And Jeff Daniels does another great character turn as Chris' blind, truth-telling roommate.

If you enjoyed any of Frank's previous work, or thought "Brick" was the bomb, you'll love this.

The crime of his life (The Oregonian, March 30, 2007)

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Posted: Fri - March 30, 2007 at 05:19 PM        

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