The Lookout

Fox Searchlight sure is a weird studio. They've handled stateside distribution for some really solid, interesting films - Once, In America, 28 Days Later, and much more - but, with the exception of 28 Days and Little Miss Sunshine (which I didn't include on the "solid, interesting" films list because it is neither), don't spend a lot of money promoting them. Raise your hand if you've heard of The Lookout. Yeah, I thought so.

The Lookout is a smart, honest, thoroughly engaging project. Chris "Slapshot" Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Brick) is a small-town high school hockey hero whose life is transformed by a devastating car accident on his last night of school. The resulting massive head trauma causes Chris to lose his ability to sequence. Sequencing is something most people give no thought to - it simply refers to how we string actions together. Loss of sequencing means Chris needs to be told how to do everything, not because he can't do it, but because he can't figure out how. For example, when his roommate (Jeff Daniels) can't make it home in time to prepare supper, he leaves Chris a message that goes something like this: take a can of tomatoes off the shelf. Open it using the can opener. Pour it into the pot. Turn on the stove....all the things that used to come naturally.

Four years after the accident, Chris keeps his life in order with a notebook. He attends a life skills class every afternoon to help him re-gain his sequencing. At night, he holds a janitorial job at a bank. Though an awkward terms with his family since the accident, Chris is not isolated. He gets along well with his roommate Lewis, an older blind man who takes an active role in encouraging him in his recovery. Every night at the bank, a cop stops by to check up on Chris, bring him a snack, and hang out and talk for a bit. But even though he stops in for a non-alcoholic beer at the local bar every night, Chris is no longer able to carry out casual conversations, and so has no friends his own age - thus setting the stage for his vulnerability to being taken advantage of, as cocky bad boy Gary (Matthew Goode - not the singer) approaches Chris and enlists his help in robbing the bank he works at by both playing to and taking advantage of his feelings of powerlessness. On the night of the robbery, Chris gets scared and tries to back out, which is when Gary turns mean, and everything starts getting really bad...

The Lookout shines on the strength of the normal dialogue and behaviour of its characters, and the natural skill of its actors. I don't know what Joseph Gordon-Levitt wants from his acting career, but with a more aggressive agent I believe he could be the next Leonardo DiCaprio; he's that good. Matthew Goode's villain is beautifully restrained, and I'm really looking forward to seeing him as Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias in the upcoming screen adaptation of Watchmen. Even the supporting actors, and the way their characters are written, are strong. Especially standing out is Sergio Di Zio as Deputy Ted, a good-natured, kind of goofy guy, who is delivered from caricature by showing himself later in the film to actually be competent as a cop.

The Lookout is available for rent, but well worth the buy. We found it for $6.99 in the cheap bin at Blockbuster; you should all be so lucky.