The Lookout is an intelligent, well made thriller that mixes just a smidgen of Memento into a classic bank heist flick. It's a little top heavy and I'm not sure the moral lesson at the end truly holds up under scrutiny, but it's exciting, not entirely predictable and has some very good actors shining through some underwritten roles.
Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) used to be on top of the world. He was a high school hockey star in Kansas with everything going for him, until a night of recklessness killed two of his friends and left Chris with brain damage. Now his coordination is shot, his self-control is erratic and it's hard for him to remember things like B comes after A and 4 comes after 3. Though his family is wealthy, Chris chooses to share an apartment with Lewis (Jeff Daniels), a blind man matched with him by social services, and work the only job he can now hold down, night janitor at a small town bank.
One night, Chris is in a bar, wanting to ask a woman out but no longer knowing how to do it, when a man strikes up a conversation with him. Gary Spargo (Matthew Goode) says he knew Chris' older sister in high school and remembers what a stud Chris used to be. Chris is drawn to Gary's acceptance and validation. He's drawn more strongly to the beautiful redhead (Isla Fisher) in Gary's company. The two of them seem to offer Chris something like his old life back. What they end up offering him is money to be the lookout while Gary and his gang rob the bank where Chris works. Frustrated with his life, Chris agrees but well, let's just say that things don't work out quite like either Chris or Gary imagines.
I liked this film. It comes up with the really interesting starting point of man consumed by guilt over what he's done to others and anguish over what he's done to himself. It shows us the broken-brain prison he put himself in and then offers him a way out that the audience kind of wants him to take. The story of an ordinary man roped into a criminal conspiracy has been done so many times before. Making Chris Pratt abnormal and making the crime his way back to normality gives the tale a new emotional resonance. No matter how many times you've seen this story before, it'll feel different this time.
And while The Lookout isn't exactly a puzzle movie, it does a very nice job of establishing things early in the film that comes together at the end in a way you don't necessarily expect. It rewards you for paying attention without completely telegraphing its intentions.
The cast also uniformly does some very good work here, particularly Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels and Matthew Goode. Gordon-Levitt has a deceptively tough job here, playing a man who knows what he wants his brain and body to do but cannot get them to comply. It'd be easy to over- or underplay this part, but Gordon-Levitt walks right down the line as what is left of a once ordinary person. Jeff Daniels is extremely charismatic as Lewis yet avoids overpowering the more subtle performance his leading man pulls off. Matthew Goode plays Gary like the biblical snake tempting a man who doesn't live in anything like the Garden of Eden. Gary is someone who has genuine regard for Chris but whose malevolent nature exploits that regard to get what it wants. Isla Fisher is also noteworthy for playing a woman that could either be very dumb or very smart and never letting the audience decide which.
What makes the acting here every more impressive is how sketchily drawn are most of the roles. We know an awful lot about Chris Pratt. We assume a lot but know far less about Lewis. We learn virtually nothing about Gary and learn completely nothing about the other members of Gary's gang. The other people in this story are caricatures at best and servants of The Almighty Plot Hammer at worse. Isla Fisher is this film's version of the "hooker with a heart of gold". One of Gary's henchmen has the menacing appearance of Peter Fonda from Easy Rider after he's been dunked in a vat of ink, but appearance is all he is.
Another problem with The Lookout is that it spends an unusual amount of time on Chris' life and doesn't get to the heist until very late in the movie. For the first hour of the film, we get stuff about Chris and his father, Chris and Lewis, Chris and a girl from his past, Chris and the people at the bank, Chris at special ed classes and the challenges and torments of Chris' day-to-day existence. Then it gets to the heist and doesn't spend an equivalent amount of time on that or Chris' relationship with the other criminals. That part of the story goes by much quicker and has a more mechanical feel. Writer/director Scott Frank needed to expand the heist part of script, which might have slackened the pace and bloated the story, but there's certainly things that could have been cut. The whole subplot about Chris and the girl from his past is too opaque and as lovely and talented as Carla Gugino is, there's no reason for her to be in this motion picture. She shows up for one scene as Chris' social worker, helps frame his condition for the audience, then is never seen or heard from again.
Its flaws don't prevent The Lookout from being entertaining. This is a movie you should see.
Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) used to be on top of the world. He was a high school hockey star in Kansas with everything going for him, until a night of recklessness killed two of his friends and left Chris with brain damage. Now his coordination is shot, his self-control is erratic and it's hard for him to remember things like B comes after A and 4 comes after 3. Though his family is wealthy, Chris chooses to share an apartment with Lewis (Jeff Daniels), a blind man matched with him by social services, and work the only job he can now hold down, night janitor at a small town bank.
One night, Chris is in a bar, wanting to ask a woman out but no longer knowing how to do it, when a man strikes up a conversation with him. Gary Spargo (Matthew Goode) says he knew Chris' older sister in high school and remembers what a stud Chris used to be. Chris is drawn to Gary's acceptance and validation. He's drawn more strongly to the beautiful redhead (Isla Fisher) in Gary's company. The two of them seem to offer Chris something like his old life back. What they end up offering him is money to be the lookout while Gary and his gang rob the bank where Chris works. Frustrated with his life, Chris agrees but well, let's just say that things don't work out quite like either Chris or Gary imagines.
I liked this film. It comes up with the really interesting starting point of man consumed by guilt over what he's done to others and anguish over what he's done to himself. It shows us the broken-brain prison he put himself in and then offers him a way out that the audience kind of wants him to take. The story of an ordinary man roped into a criminal conspiracy has been done so many times before. Making Chris Pratt abnormal and making the crime his way back to normality gives the tale a new emotional resonance. No matter how many times you've seen this story before, it'll feel different this time.
And while The Lookout isn't exactly a puzzle movie, it does a very nice job of establishing things early in the film that comes together at the end in a way you don't necessarily expect. It rewards you for paying attention without completely telegraphing its intentions.
The cast also uniformly does some very good work here, particularly Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels and Matthew Goode. Gordon-Levitt has a deceptively tough job here, playing a man who knows what he wants his brain and body to do but cannot get them to comply. It'd be easy to over- or underplay this part, but Gordon-Levitt walks right down the line as what is left of a once ordinary person. Jeff Daniels is extremely charismatic as Lewis yet avoids overpowering the more subtle performance his leading man pulls off. Matthew Goode plays Gary like the biblical snake tempting a man who doesn't live in anything like the Garden of Eden. Gary is someone who has genuine regard for Chris but whose malevolent nature exploits that regard to get what it wants. Isla Fisher is also noteworthy for playing a woman that could either be very dumb or very smart and never letting the audience decide which.
What makes the acting here every more impressive is how sketchily drawn are most of the roles. We know an awful lot about Chris Pratt. We assume a lot but know far less about Lewis. We learn virtually nothing about Gary and learn completely nothing about the other members of Gary's gang. The other people in this story are caricatures at best and servants of The Almighty Plot Hammer at worse. Isla Fisher is this film's version of the "hooker with a heart of gold". One of Gary's henchmen has the menacing appearance of Peter Fonda from Easy Rider after he's been dunked in a vat of ink, but appearance is all he is.
Another problem with The Lookout is that it spends an unusual amount of time on Chris' life and doesn't get to the heist until very late in the movie. For the first hour of the film, we get stuff about Chris and his father, Chris and Lewis, Chris and a girl from his past, Chris and the people at the bank, Chris at special ed classes and the challenges and torments of Chris' day-to-day existence. Then it gets to the heist and doesn't spend an equivalent amount of time on that or Chris' relationship with the other criminals. That part of the story goes by much quicker and has a more mechanical feel. Writer/director Scott Frank needed to expand the heist part of script, which might have slackened the pace and bloated the story, but there's certainly things that could have been cut. The whole subplot about Chris and the girl from his past is too opaque and as lovely and talented as Carla Gugino is, there's no reason for her to be in this motion picture. She shows up for one scene as Chris' social worker, helps frame his condition for the audience, then is never seen or heard from again.
Its flaws don't prevent The Lookout from being entertaining. This is a movie you should see.