Hey folks, Harry here... I've heard from a couple of folks I know that saw this, that enjoyed the film, but they wanted to love it... just didn't. J-Man's review reflects that, though he was more negative than I've heard. I've been told this is a very handsome and well performed film... that just wasn't everything they hoped for. Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing it, I've enjoyed Scott Frank's screenplays for years - i'm interested to see what his eyes see.
Some dossier, this. Scott Frank is a respected man in Hollywood. He adapted an Elmore Leonard into one of my favorite movies of the last 15 years, "Out of Sight". Joseph Gordon-Levitt's in that rising-star category, right now. Loved Isla Fisher in "Wedding Crashers", but that may just be my predilection for redheads speaking. Put the three together, and I was expecting big. Not complete indifference. Gordon-Levitt stars as Chris Pratt, nicknamed "slapshot" because he once had a promising hockey career ahead of him. He may have had the world on a platter ahead of him, too, if not for driving with his headlights off one night through a sky of fireflies (lovely scene). The accident which followed killed his friends, and left Chris with an odd disability: he can't remember to do stuff, so he has to write stuff down. He swears too much, and blurts out inappropriate sexual requests when he's around women. Some of his motor skills are shot. He's too incompetent to hold a real job, now, or function in society. At least everyone assumes. There's a grain of potential here. Chris is tired of being the way he is. SImple tasks like opening a can of sundried tomatoes can lead to a very, very bad afternoon. He's stifled and wishes everyone would lay off, though he can't necessarily hold their concern against them. Enter Gary (Matthew Goode), who recognizes Chris from hockey and school -- "I was three years ahead of you, and I looked up to you" -- buys him a drink, welcomes Chris into his circle and is soon convincing him to pull a bank job at the very bank where Chris cleans floors. Will Chris agree, out of defiance to the people who pity him? Against life, for having crippled him? The film feels like it takes a while to get where it's going, and even then it doesn't take off. Hard to say where my interest began flagging. I think a lot of the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who acts with such a strange, deadpan disconnect it was impossible to get behind him or want to see him fail. Chris is too easily swayed into breaking the law, and once it's been broke, he runs away too quickly (read: pushover, and coward). I can understand why the kid can't always make snap decisions, or think on his feet. But, at least show me some internal conflict over it. Like, when he's told to do something in particular, with his friend in danger, and we know he's got a solution to his problem right there in front of him because he tied a shoelace around it earlier. But he doesn't jump at the opportunity. I know he's naked, so to speak, without that damn notebook, but when he eventually does make the move we very well know he's going to make, give me some iota of emotion that he regrets not being able to have acted sooner. Otherwise, it just plays like he's stalling for time. Isla Fisher is yummy, but she has the quintessence of a nothing role. She has an amusing scene with Jeff Daniels, and then literally disappears. I didn't know what her true involvement was, if any, in the bank robbery, and neither will you. Speaking of Jeff Daniels - he's really the reason to see this. A blind violinist who wants to run his own restaurant, for no reason I could tell other than it's ridiculous for a violinist to be running a restaurant if he's blind. Whatever... the dude's funny. Every scene that has him, he steals it, no contest. His mushroom joke is classic. Without Jeff Daniel's impeccable comic relief, THE LOOKOUT is a bland, straight-forward heist flick told without nuance and zero tricks up its sleave. J-Man
