25th Hour (film)
From AwardAnnals
| Film: | 25th Hour |
|---|---|
| Director: | Spike Lee |
| Genres: | |
| Distributor: | Walt Disney Video |
| Find it: |
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Reviews
Amazon.com
25th Hour is a eulogy, mourning the New York of post-September 11, 2001, and the regrettable life of one of the city’s least reputable citizens. Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) isn’t a bad guy—in fact he’s a mensch, adopting a battered dog in the film’s mood-setting opening scene, and leading a decent life with his girlfriend (Rosario Dawson)…when he’s not dealing narcotics. Facing a seven-year prison term, Monty spends his last free night with pals (Barry Pepper, Philip Seymour Hoffman) and visiting his understanding father (Brian Cox), while a Russian drug lord pressures him for getting busted. Lee directs this plotless, no-win scenario as the last gasp of a guy with nowhere to go, and the film (written by David Benioff, from his own novel) suffers from a similar loss of potential, lacking enough focus to make Monty’s odyssey compelling. Instead, 25th Hour (which also costars Anna Paquin) rambles from scene to lazy scene, vaguely lamenting that lives have been wasted, some by terrorism, others by self-destruction. —Jeff Shannon
Barnes and Noble
With this superb, gritty urban drama, controversial director Spike Lee proves again that, for all his thematic affectations, he’s a formidable talent with a unique vision. 25th Hour, adapted by David Benioff from his own highly acclaimed novel, is perhaps Lee’s most accessible film to date, and it boasts some remarkable performances. Edward Norton is perfectly cast (and quite believable) as Monty Brogan, an upscale New York drug dealer to whom we are introduced just one day before he’s to begin a seven-year sentence in an upstate prison. Within 24 hours he has to say goodbye to the people he cares about most: his Puerto Rican girlfriend (Rosario Dawson), his tavern-owning dad (Brian Cox), and his childhood best friends (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Barry Pepper). Lee’s peripatetic camera follows Monty throughout his last day of freedom, during which time he ponders the significance of his ill-advised actions and reevaluates the choices he’s made. Like most of the director’s films, 25th Hour is a quintessential New York story, and Lee’s fascination with—and affection for—his hometown is apparent in every scene, including several that refer to the events of September 11, 2001. But at bottom this movie is a character study, and without Norton’s incisive interpretation of Monty Brogan the film wouldn’t be nearly as successful. Norton succeeds in making his street-smart drug dealer a sympathetic character, and we predict you’ll remember the bitter rant Monty delivers on the eve of his incarceration. Hoffman makes the most of a muted character, and Pepper really scores as Monty’s smug stockbroker friend, who exhibits little sympathy for the convicted dealer but loyally sees him off. Dawson, heretofore underutilized in such mainstream fodder as Josie and the Pussycats and The Adventures of Pluto Nash, delivers her best performance to date as the girlfriend, Naturelle, and Cox has a fine supporting turn as the father. Lee’s direction is virtually unerring; he perfectly captures the essence of every scene, and for once he seamlessly integrates photography, editing, production design, and music. Poignant and plaintive, 25th Hour ranks at the top of Lee’s oeuvre. Ed Hulse
Related works
25th Hour: Original Score
Spike Lee’s powerful rumination on the last 24 hours of freedom of a young convicted felon (Edward Norton) before he serves a seven-year prison sentence that will forever change his life is charged with melancholy regrets—and slim hopes of redemption. Longtime Lee collaborator Terence Blanchard’s haunting score was deservedly nominated for a Golden Globe for the stark, sophisticated way it colors a challenging story with music that’s at once haunting and achingly introspective. Blanchard’s orchestral music here may at first seem like his most obvious bowing to…
The 25th Hour: A Novel
An absorbing novel of crime, its terrifying consequences, and a bond that redefines the friendship of three restless young men.
Wall Street speculators, the Manhattan downtown club scene, Russian gangsters, immigrant neighborhoods—all the elements in the urban turf of this finely crafted contemporary crime novel wed danger with excitement and possibility. They’re the rewards that Monty Brogan, who stands at the center of the moral glare in this tale, has already lost, just as he’s lost his Corvette, and the “sway” that opened the doors of exclusive night spots and guaranteed him courtside seats at Madison Square Garden. Tomorrow Monty’s traveling by bus, to the federal prison in Otisville, for seven years. He’s afraid, and all he’d ever really wanted when he grew up was to be a fireman.
With the pulse of the city in its prose, this debut novel follows Monty through the twenty-four hours of his last day out. At the same time, it illuminates the worlds, and souls, of his two best friends: Frank Slattery, an edgy bond trader who gambles daily with financial ruin, and Jakob…
