The Lookout: Crime and Tragedy in a Small Town
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels, Matthew Goode, Isla Fisher

Review by Breanne Boland April 5, 2007 Issue

It’s well known that success in Hollywood is mostly made through connections rather than talent. Fortunately, it’s still just democratic enough that some goofy kid from some relatively forgettable TV show can grow up to become a fine actor and, most importantly, find worthwhile scripts.

Such is the case with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and The Lookout. Gordon-Levitt plays Chris Pratt, a young man who once had a promising future. As a talented athlete and the son of a prominent family, he could have had everything he wanted without trying. Instead, a horrific car accident leaves him struggling with brain damage, living half a life and limping guiltily through life with a notebook perennially in his pocket to keep him informed.

Chris’s grasps at normality lead him to take a job as a janitor at a bank, and his visibility and routine bring him to the attention of a group of would-be thieves seeking a juicy target. Exploiting his hopelessness, they lure him into their plans with flattery and promises of power. Unfortunately, it’s too late when he catches onto what’s happening, and with his limited mind he has to figure out how to put things right.

It helps that the film found performers to elevate it above being a fairly ordinary heist film with a unique twist. With a less talented actor, the character could have been a ball of awkwardness — the tics and inappropriate comments defining his disability could have all been easy overkill for someone less deft. Fortunately, someone capable took the job, and instead of being some mopey, maudlin tale of a golden boy fallen, the story is tragic in the Shakespearean sense, rather than being sappy. The character doesn’t want anyone’s condescension or low standards, and the film doesn’t make the mistake so many people in it do.

The supporting cast makes sure that Gordon-Levitt’s efforts don’t suffer the fate of so many fine performances stranded in mediocre films. Jeff Daniels is Chris’s roommate; a blind man who has coped well with what life brought him. He could be just some glowing paradigm of what Chris could be, but Daniels’ effortless humanity and humor make him more than that; he also provides vital comic relief.

Matthew Goode (Match Point) and Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers) fill out the circle of deceit that brings Chris closer to the life he still thinks he can have. Goode brings a great mix of menace and charisma to the ringleader of his band of crooks, as the darker version of what Chris envisions being someday.

Best of all, this movie avoids an unlikely tidy ending. Easy lessons aren’t learned and the bigger problems in Chris’s life aren’t solved. It allows just enough hope as the situation will allow — like the rest of the film, it doesn’t spare realism for the heart’s sake. The Lookout is a very good serious film providing an excellent counterpoint to the louder, more excessive films starting to fill theaters at this point in the year.

Bottom line: complex and worthwhile

Coming Attractions
April 6
Grindhouse - A double feature from Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. These two short films ape the exploitative, violent style of 70s grindhouse cinema. Among other things, it includes a stripper with a machine gun for a leg. Honestly.

Are We Done Yet? - A remake of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House became a sequel to Are We There Yet? Let us hope that the answer to this title’s question is “Yes.”

The Reaping - Double Oscar winner Hilary Swank in yet another strange project. Swank plays a logical professor called to Texas to make sense of the biblical plagues that have fallen upon a small town.

April 13
Disturbia - Rear Window with a teenage protagonist. Shia LaBeouf is trapped in his house by a police-issued ankle bracelet; to amuse himself, he begins to spy on his neighbors. Of course, eavesdropping in movies is never a simple diversion.

Perfect Stranger - A thriller starring Halle Berry and Bruce Willis in which much of the action takes place through… online instant messaging. Guys, if Clive Owen couldn’t make that exciting in Closer, it can’t be done.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters - Made infamous by the giant January bomb scare in Boston. The cartoon is always a pleasant surprise in that something so simple and weird can be so funny, but will the premise work in an environment where the audience can’t indulge in a little herbal diversion?

Slow Burn – Ray Liotta is a district attorney untangling the truth between a beautiful assistant D.A., a gang lord, and a mysterious stranger.

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