Movie Review: The Lookout

By Anne Brodie Mar 29, 2007, 3:41 GMT

The Lookout marks Academy Award®-nominated screenwriter Scott Frank’s (Out of Sight), directorial debut.  The intelligent crime drama is centered around Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mysterious Skin), a once promising high school athlete whose life is turned upside down following a tragic accident.  As he tries to maintain a normal life, he takes a job as a janitor at a bank where he ultimately finds himself caught up in a planned heist.  ...more

He probably prefers it this way, but despite the fact that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a sensationally talented actor, he is a relative unknown.

Sure, back in the days of Third Rock from the Sun things were different. So why this chasm between then and now?

First, he took a hiatus from acting to attend college.

Second, he doesn’t like publicity, thinks the whole Hollywood game is contemptible. 

Gordon-Levitt has delivered knock out performances in four films in a row – ‘Mysterious Skin,’ ‘Manic,’ ‘Brick’ and now ‘The Lookout.’ Is there no acting mountain this 26 year old can’t climb? He’s a skilled comedic and dramatic actor.

The contemporary noir film ‘Brick’ made many of top ten critics’ lists last year, including mine. He was positively searing as a mentally ill disturber in ‘Manic’ and guilt-ridden prostitute in ‘Mysterious Skin.’
It’s not surprising – he’s been acting since childhood and despite what you might think, I believe that acting for six years on an intelligent sitcom is as good as theatre training.

His character in ‘The Lookout’ is seriously complicated, the kind of role an actor dreams of. He’s the conflicted, rebellious son of wealthy parents and plagued by guilt about a car accident he caused that killed two friends and injured another.

And the accident left him mentally disabled, unable to string a day together without writing it all down. It’ not Memento, it’s realistic and devastating in Gordon-Levitt’s hands.

But he’s taking life skills classes and doing his best to get back in the groove.His notebook tells him what to do each morning - how to wake up, shower with soap and eat breakfast everyday.

He has a good friend to watch out for him (Jeff Daniels) but he’s dependent on those around him knowing what happened and treating him with extra care. Someone like him is vulnerable to the seductive pull of strangers who are nice to him.

Because his life is so limited, he doesn’t know how to sort out good guys from bad.

And so bad guys pull him into a scheme to rob the bank he cleans at night. And what a subtle, powerful journey he makes.

I guess I’ve made it clear that Gordon-Levitt is great in the film.

He is the heart and soul of it and he’s in nearly every frame. He carries it with ease and conviction that would shame an older Hollywood actor.

Imagine the shock of finding the most loathsome, evil mastermind is Matthew Goode, the romantic prince of 'Chasing Liberty' and the mild and proper character in Miss Marple? Took me a while to figure it out, but there he is, big as life, a manipulative, seductive puppeteer who ruins the lives of those around him.

Sacha Baron-Cohen’s real life girlfriend Isla Fisher is suitably grimy here – she’s a retired pole dancer who’s infected by her ‘master’s’ corrosion. She shows promise in drama; she proved herself as a capable comic actor in 'The Wedding Crashers.'

As for the story, Scott Frank has a keen ear and eye for tension; he builds the dynamic clash of the character’s self-imposed routines against the chaos of evil intrusion in spine tingling increments.

The Lookout
35mm drama
Written and directed by Scott Frank
Runtime: 99 minutes

Opens March 30th MPAA: Rated R language, some violence and sexual content