With so many films this year trying to capture the real feel of New York City or attempting to shine light on post 9/11 life, Spike Lee’s “25th Hour” easily puts the rest to shame. More impressive than finally saying what a city as diverse as New York has been feeling is that Lee does so without ever glorifying its pre-9/11 history in the same cheesy, nostalgic way. Even better, Lee knows not to just say it but also to show it repeatedly in a thousand different ways.
“25th Hour” is the story of Monty Brogan’s (Edward Norton, “The Red Dragon”) last day as a free man in the Big Apple. Facing a seven year jail sentence for pushing drugs, Monty spends the day trying to find something comforting that both explains why this happened to him and how he can possibly go on living.
Accompanied by his Jewish English teacher and friend, Jakob Elinsky (Philip Seymour Hoffman, “The Red Dragon”), his power-lunch eating stockbroker Frank Slaughtery (Barry Pepper, “We Were Soldiers”), and his Irish, recovering-alcoholic father (Brian Cox, “The Ring”), Monty attends his going away party at a trendy nightclub.
Of course, the plot is a bit more complicated because of the mystery surrounding who tipped off the DEA: Monty’s right-hand man Kostya Novotny (NFL’s Baltimore Ravens tackle Tony Siragusa), or his Puerto Rican girlfriend Naturelle Rivera (Rosario Dawson, “Men In Black II”).
Even with that, the story is sprinkled with flashbacks of the DEA busting in and of meeting Naturelle and topped off with the mostly mental affair that Jakob (and most male viewers of the 15-19 age group) has with his student, the tantalizing Mary D’Annunzio (Anna Paquin, “Finding Forrester”).
In the opening scene, where Norton saves a tortured dog, Lee uses a jump cut reminiscent of Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless,” also a film about a criminal with only 24 hours as a free man whose foreign girlfriend turns him in (not to say that it was Naturelle who turned Monty in, but the plot reference is clear).
In Monty’s apartment hangs a “Cool Hand Luke” poster, implying that Monty, like Luke, will not conform or survive in prison. Lee also embeds now-classic elements of his own style into a scene in which Norton delivers a racially-charged tirade, recalling “Do the Right Thing.” Together these elements not only demonstrate Lee’s foundation in cinema, but also help the educated viewer see beyond what is on the screen by evoking the same feelings for which these other cinematic gems are famous.
Edward Norton is growing slowly as an actor; he’s receiving roles that differ enough to elude typecasting, yet all allow him to always fall back on the now-annoying character of the deeply troubled good guy/bad guy. His performance is solid and fits very well into the New York City that Lee creates.
Norton is also well-backed by Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Anna Paquin. Their chemistry on-screen is so seductive that the viewer, as Jakob, wishes that Mary were not his student.
Although Lee seems to go a bit out of the way in painting Paquin as the bad girl, Hoffman makes up for it by appearing at the club wearing a Yankees hat and slacks only to fall asleep, which is a really terrific counter to Mary’s scant clothing and trashy henna tattoo. Barry Pepper’s performance is even, and he does the obnoxious stockbroker role better than most, but it would be a shame to see his talents squandered down that spiral.
“25th Hour” is entertaining and thoughtful, not providing the viewer with any definite answer or solution (again, a Lee staple), but leaving all sorts of clues open for interpretation — whether as obscure as the French New Wave or as obvious as Monty saving the tortured pup — that force an active viewing of the picture.
In the end, Monty is the sum of the choices he has made in life. He can escape to rebuild somewhere else, or he can bare that, for better or for worse, and one day return to his beloved New York.
Grade: A
