25th Hour

Spike Lee has directed this 2002 movie starring Edward Norton as Montgomery Brogan, Phillip Seymore Hoffman as Jacob Elinsky, Barry Pepper as Frank,  Rosario Dawson as Naturelle and Anna Paquin as Mary.

Spike Lee’s work has certain typical characteristics. He likes to hang around New York and make the city itself a player. That means we get a lot of exterior shots, which is nice and sets the scene beautifully. He also likes to take his time in a scene which delivers dialogue between two characters, giving their body language time to develop and focusing on the interaction. There is of course the obligatory rascist rant at some point, which is calculated to upset, no matter how much in context it might be.

This movie delivers all of that.

Norton’s character Monty goes through nothing less than a moral apotheosis. He has been dealing drugs since he was in high school and gets caught. There are a couple of things going on all at once with this story from a moral perspective. His friends blame themselves for not stopping him, Monty is uncertian as to who turned him in to the police, but suspects Naturelle, the girlfriend, his father blames himself because in the early days Monty has helped him pay off his debts and because he has a drinking problem.

Still, this is all good and fine, but Monty has made his own decisions and it is a difficult quagmire to navigate from a moral point of view. Actions have consequences and that’s about all you can say about this without getting in to some very dodgy territory.

Norton plays the penitent with all the skill I’ve come to expect of him. His entire body language is different, slouchy and laid back. He often portrays morally questionable characters, to say the least, but still manages to wrangle some sympathy for them which I find fascinating. Rosario Dawson as the girlfriend, Naturelle, is the picture of drop-dead gorgeousness all around, but still has depth as well. Brian Cox plays the elder Brogan with the bar and the drinking problem and there’s a whole story right there.

The action takes place in the last twenty-four hours before Monty is due to go to prison for a seven year stretch.

The action follows Monty throughout the day as he walks down memory lane, so we get treated to flash backs and flash forwards as well.

This is where things get interesting. After having followed Monty around for an entire day while he angsts and gets patted on the shoulder the movie takes a very sharp left turn.

As his father drives him to prison Monty gets convinced to run away and recreate himself instead. The movie becomes slightly dream like and abstract at this point. And that’s where I start to feel my forehead crinkle.

Every scenario painted by Monty’s friends and busines associates tells of how a pretty white boy like Monty’s not going to make it in prison and he believes them. Instead of taking his punishment – i.e. the consequences of his actions, he goes off to start a new life. His father names it “the life he was supposed to live”.

That is certainly questionable to say the least. And very dreamlike and idyllic.

It’s well worth watching and it will probably make most viewers foreheads crinkle up like mine did.

Mule

Primal Fear

Directed by Gregory Hoblit this 1996 court room drama stars Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Edward Norton and Frances McDormand.

Gere’s attorney Martin Vail is a vain bastard, that much is obvious right from the get go. He embodies all the characteristics of a lawyer when at the top of his game and obviously his goal here is to defend the innocent, or not so innocent, and look good whilst doing it. He has a conscience somewhere, but he is still basically an ambulance chaser.

When the news of a gory murder hits, Vail is first through the gate to get to defend the young suspect Aaron Stempler. Aaron comes across as sweet, shy and misguided. A young drifter who has been taken in by the local church and then subjected to Archbishop Rushman’s (Stanley Anderson) dubious attention. It turns out that the Archbishop has some interesting habits involving the young people supposedly in the church’s care.

So the altar boy murders a priest and then hides shivering and covered in blood by the railway tracks. The lawyer who normally meets events as a cynical tactician is blindsided by the suspect. Aaron seems to have a mean man in him called Roy. Aaron goes from sweet, stuttering and mild tempered confusion to alpha male in two seconds flat. Roy, the other personality, is the one who takes care of business. He protects Aaron. He killed the priest.

So the defense now switches from “there was a third man in the room” to “there was a third man in the room, but he lives in Aaron’s head”, which is a tricky thing to try and pull off.

This movie has been around for a while and I actually saw it back then and now happened to revisit it. This is Norton’s first big performance and he does pull it off in a way which with the twenty-twenty vision provided by hindsight you can say foreshadows his later performances. It is not particularily memorable movie for any other reason, though, more a basic staple of court room drama, and there has been quite a lot of that.

Strong, solid chracter performances, but not much else. Still very enjoyable in it’s basic bread and butter way.

Mule