The Lookout
(dir. Scott Frank)
"Whoever has the money has the power..."
Low-key bank job with Joseph Gordon Levitt, Jeff Daniels and Isla Fisher. JGL follows up his star turn in Brick, as a once-promising high school jock who is now dealing with the aftermath of an accident, working as a bank janitor by night, re-learning basic life-skills by day. His short-term memory and sequencing skills are shot, which means he gets though life by writing everything down. Jeff Daniels is his blind room-mate, Isla Fisher an ex-classmate who comes into his life at the encouragement of Matthew Goode, a dodgy barfly with big plans.
It's less stylised than Brick, but similar in the way it reworks the conventions of noir thrillers to produce a satisfying, modern spin on the genre. It's a small farm town, with nothing going on, lots of dirty snow on the ground, everyone knows everyone etc. Writer/director Scott Frank (Get Shorty/ Out Of Sight/ Minority Report etc) builds the tension of out JGL's growing sense of frustration with his new lot in life - the high school star now washing floors, naively accepting a way out by Goode and his crew.
The notebook that he writes everything down in gives the film a touch of Memento's sensibility, as he moves from trying to piece together his life to piecing together the bank job that he's pushed into - but it's used in a less tricksy way here.
Believable performances all round, decent direction and convincing stakes: highly watchable.
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