Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Matthew Goode in Miramax Films' The Lookout
© N/A

Mania Grade: A-
Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release
Rated: R
Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels, Matthew Goode, Isla Fisher, Bruce McGill
Writer: Scott Frank
Director: Scott Frank
Distributor: Miramax Films

Related Links

0

"The Lookout"

The Lookout marks the feature directing debut of Scott Frank, who wrote the delightful Kenneth Branagh vehicle Dead Again and did the screenplays for the adaptations of Elmore Leonard’s Get Shorty and Out of Sight. The Lookout is every bit as narratively snappy, assured and satisfying as any of these, with a premise that creates both great character depth and a carefully calibrated buildup of tension. 

Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a young man who has a problem, evident from the way the film starts – and restarts. Chris is making a list of what happens when he wakes up in the morning and having trouble remembering exactly what this is. As we learn in a flashback, Chris had it all – rich family, local hockey star, great girlfriend – before accidentally causing a vehicle wreck that leaves him brain-damaged and guilt-ridden. Chris now works as a janitor at a bank in the small Midwest town where he grew up, still in rehabilitation therapy and rooming with an independent, humorous blind man named Lewis (Jeff Daniels) who wants the two of them to open a restaurant. One night, hanging out at the local bar, Chris is approached by Gary (Matthew Goode), who says he saw Chris play hockey back in the day. Chris is slowly but surely drawn into Gary’s orbit, even bedding Gary’s ex-stripper friend Luvlee Lemons (Isla Fisher). But Gary and his buddies have plans for Chris, figuring that the combination of Chris’ night janitor job and mental problems make him the ideal inside man for a bank robbery right after the local farmers deposit their harvest cash. 

Although we can see Chris getting in deeper and deeper and understand what’s driving him, what we don’t know is how all this will play out. Frank’s plotting is deft, his dialogue is a pleasure, the violence is realistically horrifying and we find ourselves genuine concerned for the fates of the characters. 

Gordon-Levitt gives us all of Chris’ effort, frustration and internal contradictions – he’s shattered both emotionally and physically by what’s happened to him, yet still retains traces of his old stubborn self. It’s a very cohesive and dimensional performance. Daniels is likable as the wary, warm Lewis and Goode is smooth as Gary, who knows just how to play to Chris’ weak points without tipping his hand too early – Frank and Goode both make sure we don’t feel Chris seems fatally naïve for accepting Gary’s friendship early on. 

The Lookout has a sense of stark beauty to it, with great use of snow and gray brick to reinforce the story’s noir sensibilities; the sequence in which we know the accident will happen has a sense of such magic to it that we can almost sympathize with Chris’ unfortunate impulse to show off here.