[DVD Review (R2)] THE LOOKOUT

This here is the directorial debut of Scott Frank. You know Scott Frank right? He is the screenwriter behind the Sydney Pollack conspiracy yarn that was The Interpreter, the surprisingly “okay” remake of Flight of the Phoenix, the really rather brilliant Minority Report, the gorgeously pitch-perfect modern masterpiece that was Out of Sight, the run of the mill modern noir that was Heaven’s Prisoners, the over-rated but still rather good Get Shorty, the hasn’t-been-talked-about-in-over-ten-years Malice, the Jodie Foster directorial effort Little Man Tate and the hugely loved but STILL not seen by me in its entirity Dead Again.

Now he has his directorial debut, The Lookout. With Frank’s reputation he could have adaptated any novel he wanted. He didn’t. He could have went with any epic genre he saw fit. He chose not to. And he could have pulled together a massively attractive MTV-crowd favouring cast. He went the other way.

And instead Scott Frank delivers a low-level crime thriller, almost ambitionless in its outlook, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who’s always good in whatever he sets out to do, alongside the always excellent Jeff Daniels, the on-the-rise Matthew Goode, the over-rated Isla Fisher, the dependable character weight of Bruce McGill and my secret crush, Carla Gugino.

You probably wanted to check this out but then found it disappeared from your radar, just like it did for me. Well, it’s out on DVD now and there’s not a reason in the world for you not to hunt this out.

Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is an admired high school hockey player with a bright future who foolishly takes a drive in the night with his girlfriend and two buddies, pulling a prank of driving with his headlights off - only to cause a devastating car crash. He’s left with a brain injury that prevents him from remembering many things for extended periods of time.

To compensate, Chris keeps notes in a small notebook to aid him in remembering what he is to do. He also lives with a blind friend (Jeff Daniels) who aids him as best he can. Unable to have a meaningful job, Chris works as a night cleaner in the bank of the small wintery town he calls home. It is there he comes under the scrutiny of a gang planning to rob the bank.

The mysterious leader “Gary” (Matthew Goode) befriends him and gets him involved with a young woman (Isla Fisher) who further reels him in. Confused but wanting to escape his current existence, he initially goes along with the robbery scheme when it is finally presented to him. But soon conscience gets the better of young Chris…

Scott Frank has written a solid, involving thriller that does well to throw away the “it’s just ripping off Memento” accusations and to stand on its own two feet. It doesn’t try and reconfigure or fuck around with the conventions of the “heist” genre or be anything that it’s not.

As hard as he tries though he can’t illicite a rounded performance from Isla Fisher. I really don’t see why the “word” is so strong on this particular actress. Someone like Rachel McAdams would have set the friggin’ screen alight with this role. Fisher is bland and forgettable and, for someone playing a variation on the femme fatale, that’s pretty troublesome.

Her failings are highlighted all the more because of the cast surrounding her who do fantastic work with their roles. Levitt and Goode are worthy of mentions but it’s the “old guard”, namely the ever-excellent Jeff Daniels and Greg Dunham as the silent-but-deadly Bone, that come out and steal the whole show.

The opening voice-over (”Start at the end”) suggests a twist that doesn’t come. Hell the rear of the DVD cover speaks of a “shocking twist” that just isn’t there. This is just solid, sensible film-making whereby Frank has written an involving stories, intriguing characters and - for the most part - cast them extremely well.

This is a film screaming out to be reappraised on DVD. In fact, I personally think it will only better with age and I hope that Frank doesn’t do a Charles Laughton a la Night of the Hunter and leave this as a one shot deal. I’d love to see more of his directorial stuff.

Posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 10:00 pm under DVD Reviews (R2) by Gazz.
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