New to DVD: The Lookout

by Brett Parker

It’s about time Scott Frank got to direct his own film. If you don’t know Frank, he’s the screenwriter who fleshed out very memorable characters in the scripts for Get Shorty, Out of Sight, and Minority Report. That’s one thing his new film, The Lookout, is filled to the brim with: memorable characters. Frank and the actors on display here breathe a fascinating life into an otherwise familiar bank heist routine, making for a very involving thriller.

The film centers on Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a high school hockey star that’s at the driver’s seat in a horrific car crash as the film opens. The crash kills two passengers and leaves Chris’s girlfriend (Laura Vandervoort) without a leg. As for Chris himself, he is left with serious brain damage. He has a laundry list of things mentally wrong with him. His memory is shot. He forgets the littlest things. He has to write everything down. He has a hard time gripping things with his hand. Living with a blind roommate (Jeff Daniels), Chris spends his broken life working as a night janitor at a local bank. Life is pretty hopeless for Chris, until the night he runs into Gary (Matthew Goode), who claims to be a former classmate at Chris’s school. He befriends Chris and even introduces him to his hot stripper friend, Luvlee (Isla Fisher). Pretty soon Chris is partying with Gary and sleeping with Luvlee and things appear to be picking up, until Chris discovers that Gary is planning to rob Chris’s bank and include him in the plan. At first, Chris refuses, until Gary explains to him that loads of money may help change his life for, “whoever has the money has the power.”

What is so surprising and rewarding about the film is how vividly and intimately the characters are seen. Usually in crime thrillers like this, the characters lack true depth and are at the mercy of the plot. Here, the characters are given their own lives and room to breathe, making the standards of the plot secondary. We find ourselves caring about the characters and their relationships. We sympathize so much with Chris that even when he makes the unwise decision to participate in the robbery, we understand his reasons and his need to do so. I really enjoyed Chris’s relationships with Lewis, the blind roommate, and Ted (Sergio Di Zeo), a local deputy who hangs out with Chris on his bank shift. There’s a great moment between Chris and Ted during which the bank is being robbed against Ted’s knowledge. I also liked an instance where the thankless character of Gary’s girlfriend (Tinsel Korey) is given an unexpected depth by talking on the phone to her child. All of these characters are so interesting that if you took away the bank heist plot, you’d still have an entertaining movie. Much credit is due to the cast, who all turn in very absorbing and convincing performances. Gordon-Levitt is just as good here as he is in Brick, Daniels is an absolute delight, and the English Goode makes for a great bad guy with a masterful American accent.

It helps that the characters are great, because the bank robbery itself is pretty standard stuff. It’s typical heist territory, with the usual flaws, shootouts, and betrayals. What it lacks is the twists and surprises you’d expect from a heist plot. So much could’ve been done with robbers manipulating a mentally challenged bank employee, yet Frank keeps things surprisingly simple. Perhaps he spent so much time with character development that the bank robbery went on the backburner. After the dust settles and the plot threads of the robbery are worked out, I couldn’t help thinking of a line from Frank’s Out of Sight script: “Most bank robbers are fucking morons!”

For a first time director, Scott Frank has shown that he has what it takes to craft an absorbing thriller. Not only does he know how to write a hell of a script, but he knows how to assemble all the parts to make them believable and entertaining. It’s been a while since there’s been a thriller so emotionally involving, making The Lookout a film to relish.

The Lookout is available on DVD August 14th