The (nearly) reluctant sentinel
- Review By:
- tpb
- Date:
- January 11, 2009
- Movie:
- The Lookout
- Director:
- Scott Frank
- Released:
- 2007
- Good Guy:
- Chris Pratt
- Played By:
- Joseph Gordon-levitt
- Bad Guy:
- Gary Spago
- Played By:
- Matthew Goode
- MPAA Rating:
- R
- Family Friendly Ages:
- Not for kids
The Lookout is a compelling sleeper of a film that combines unusually remarkable character development with brilliant story-telling. Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) was a star high school athlete and promising young man when he drove his car at high speed, one night, into a stalled piece of farm equipment on a dark, Kansas road. He killed his two friends, maimed his girl-friend, Kelly (Laura Vandervoort), and suffered a severe head injury as a result of the accident. He'd been driving without the lights so they all could see better the glittering mayflies that swarmed annually in that remote spot. He also wanted to impress Kelly, and his lingering memories of that night are of Kelly's purring admiration for the high-speed drive and midnight adventure moments before the crash. Now, four years later, he has to re-learn basic life skills and learn to forgive himself as well. “I just want my old life back,”, he tells Gary (Matthew Goode) with remorse, regret, and more than a little despair . Gary is a charming, confident ex-con who, with his crew of ne'er -do-wells has been following Chris as he goes about his day-to-day routines. Chris works as the janitor in a bank and Gary and his pals plan to rob that bank with Chris' help. The robbers do a slick job of setting Chris up and sucking him in. And once he's in, the tension doesn't let up.
What makes The Lookout a stand-out piece of film making is not how well it tells this suspenseful heist story – though it tells the tale very well. What makes it great is how it puts Chris and his disability-driven world at the center and spins the story through his relationships with his family, his co-workers, his boss, the bartender at the local tap, the bank robbers, the local cop, his roommate, Lewis (Jeff Daniels), and his own relationship with himself, his past, and his indeterminate future.
