The Lookout

Posted by James Schu (jgs210@psu.edu) on April 1, 2007

In our 21st-century, post-Tarantino world of filmmaking, originality has become almost a parody of itself. Is it even original anymore to have quirky characters, snappy dialogue, stylish violence and a needlessly convoluted—if not downright contrived—plot (Smokin’ Aces, anyone)? Or is there more skill in using a realistic, humanistic approach to storytelling, where the actual quality of filmmaking can’t be hidden beneath the guise of cleverness? Exhibit A in the latter argument is The Lookout, the directorial debut of accomplished screenwriter Scott Frank (Get Shorty, Minority Report), which features just the latest in a string of strong performances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Resisting the temptation to overreach for ‘rookie sensation’ status, Frank is spare and efficient behind the camera, forgoing tricky maneuvers for a straight-ahead workmanlike adequacy. He’s equally economical behind the keyboard, fitting a hell of a lot of characterization into a 99-minute movie, and sprinkles occasional humor to break up the script’s periods of tense drama.

More than anything, The Lookout is a character study of Chris Pratt (Gordon-Levitt), a once-promising high school hockey star who now exists in the day-to-day purgatory of brain damage after a one-car accident on prom night four years ago. Two friends died in the crash. Chris was the driver. Guilt haunts him as much as his mental affliction, which breeds an incessant absent-mindedness and inhibits his ability to sequence the order of events properly. He takes a low-paying, pride-swallowing job as the night janitor at a local bank, attends remedial classes, and sees a therapist (Carla Gugino). Ashamed of his dependence on his parents for everything from his car and rent to the clothes on his back, Chris is intrigued when approached by a former acquaintance named Gary about a way to make his own money. “Whoever has the money has the power,” Gary insists. Chris is sick of his lack of self-sufficiency. He wants to be his old, independent self. He agrees to help Gary rob the bank, and things begin to spiral out of Chris’s control.

The performances in The Lookout are nothing short of awesome. Jeff Daniels is sharp-witted and wise as Chris’s blind roommate Lewis, Matthew Goode is superbly sleazy as the manipulative Gary, and even Isla Fisher as ex-stripper Luvlee Lemons…actually, she sucks pretty bad here. But Gordon-Levitt, whose voice is quite regular and face is not particularly expressive, is nonetheless outstanding, effortlessly coaxing empathy from the audience and delivering Chris’s mannerisms as pointedly as his lines. If you’ve run into the critical acclaim for his acting in nearly every other Lookout review, believe the hype. He smartly follows up his role in last year’s Brick, which was especially lauded here at FSR, with another small, intelligent film that might not blow up the box office, but should find a loyal audience through word of mouth.

It may not sound like high praise, but The Lookout is succeeds because it’s content to be just a quick, straightforward crime thriller with a welcome emphasis on characterization. In a genre that has become far too reliant on quirkiness, plot twists, and gimmicks, it’s rare that a film comes along so unpretentiously and serves up an enjoyable 90 minutes of character-driven tension and drama. The Lookout is filmmaking done the right way.

Read more articles by James Schu