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I see more, and enjoy fewer, movies
than just about anyone I know. Friends and family are consistently
frustrated with me for this reason. I seem to always find
myself downplaying the merits of somebody’s favorite movie,
be it a fluffy crowd-pleasing piece of crap like A Beautiful
Mind or a well-intentioned, bloated and unfulfilling work
along the lines of About Schmidt. During these long
harangues, I am inevitably asked, “Why do you go to so goddamned
many movies if you never like any of them?” Sometimes it’s
been so long I can’t even remember the answer, but the reason
is that every once in a while I get to see something like
25th Hour.
Spike Lee’s latest concerns Monty
Brogan (Norton), a convicted drug dealer who has been
sentenced to seven years in prison. As in the director’s earlier
Do The Right Thing, all the events occur in the same
24-hour period. (Technically, a few scenes take place outside
of this timeline, but they are pointedly filmed so that they
“look” different.) In this case, the action takes place in
New York City on Monty’s last day of freedom before checking
himself in to an upstate prison. But “action” is a bit of
a misnomer—25th Hour has, essentially, no
plot. The film functions more as a vehicle for its characters
to meditate upon Monty’s past and impending future, and is
as talky as anything from Richard Linklater or Whit
Stillman. But what emerges from the characters’ interactions
with each other is something much larger and more profound
than the resolution of any particular conflict.
Monty himself wonders who might
have fingered him to the DEA, and the leading candidate is
his girlfriend, Naturelle (Dawson). Fearing the worst,
Monty is increasingly cold to her. Not knowing the cause of
Monty’s distance, Naturelle is confused and hurt by his emotional
rejection, as the couple has only one night left together.
Monty’s two oldest friends, Wall Street player Frank (Pepper)
and schlubby prep-school teacher Jakob (Hoffman), wonder
if they could have stopped Monty from dealing drugs, and if
there is any way to help him now. Monty’s father (Cox)
is racked with guilt about the fact that he was drunk through
much of his son’s childhood, and that a lot of Monty’s drug
money had gone to bail out his failing bar. Philip Seymour
Hoffman turns in a powerful performance in a subplot that
finds Jakob longing for his flirtatious but underage student
(Paquin). While Jakob’s dilemma eats away at him and
threatens to destroy his life, his friends can hardly be bothered,
concerned as they are about Monty’s impending incarceration.
Simmering beneath all of these
interpersonal concerns is New York City itself. One scene
overlooks the empty space where once stood the Twin Towers,
and another features a monument to fallen firefighters. At
one point in the film, Monty delivers to his reflection a
long staccato monologue splaying about his desire that various
groups of Gotham residents get fucked. While some might find
this rant stereotypical and offensive, it reflects a deep
intimacy and familiarity with the place and its people; though
Monty might hate New York, he seems afraid that he cannot
live without it.
Spike Lee has named Martin
Scorsese as one of his biggest influences. 25th
Hour showcases this tutelage—the last 15 minutes or so,
for example, are heavily indebted to The Last Temptation
Of Christ. Both filmmakers’ most recent projects use New
York City to make a statement about our nation at large in
the wake of September 11. But while Gangs Of New York
looks to root our self-understanding in a past long since
forgotten, 25th Hour examines a present
often misunderstood in order to reach few conclusions at all.
By leaving open the possibility that none of us know what
America means, Lee has delivered a truly excellent movie.
—Mike O’Connor
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