On the town, before up the riverEdward Norton plays a drug dealer who's been ratted out in Spike Lee's latest New York drama.
Standing in front of a mirror on his last day of freedom before going to prison for seven years, Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) launches a raging, expletive-propelled litany against every ethnic and sexual stripe known to inhabit the teeming city that is New York. In this pivotal and brilliant scene in Spike Lee's 25th Hour, no one escapes Monty's wrath. But as Norton's character gazes at himself and curses the Jews, the blacks, the Asians, the gays and so on, we see a riffling succession of shots of the targets of his invective and realize that this isn't a song of hate - it's a song of love. With a gorgeous jazz refrain on the soundtrack (courtesy of Terence Blanchard) and a series of keen and compelling portraits on the screen (Rodrigo Prieto is the cinematographer), Monty's profane salvo becomes a rhapsody to the diverse, tough beauty of a great city and its people.
Standing in front of a mirror on his last day of freedom before going to prison for seven years, Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) launches a raging, expletive-propelled litany against every ethnic and sexual stripe known to inhabit the teeming city that is New York. In this pivotal and brilliant scene in Spike Lee's 25th Hour, no one escapes Monty's wrath.
But as Norton's character gazes at himself and curses the Jews, the blacks, the Asians, the gays and so on, we see a riffling succession of shots of the targets of his invective and realize that this isn't a song of hate - it's a song of love. With a gorgeous jazz refrain on the soundtrack (courtesy of Terence Blanchard) and a series of keen and compelling portraits on the screen (Rodrigo Prieto is the cinematographer), Monty's profane salvo becomes a rhapsody to the diverse, tough beauty of a great city and its people.
Opening with a night shot of the New York skyline and the twin shafts of blue light that served as a temporary memorial to the World Trade Center towers, 25th Hour is very much a paean to filmmaker Lee's hometown - and to the city in the edgy aftermath of Sept. 11.
If New York is itself a character, the protagonist of this uneven but absorbing film remains Norton's Monty: a wily, up-from-the-streets New Yorker whose grab for fast, easy money finally got the better of him. Monty is a drug dealer - and one day the cops show up at his door and take him away. He's been ratted out.
Was it his girlfriend, Naturelle (Rosario Dawson)? One of his best friends, Slaughtery (Barry Pepper) or Jakob (Philip Seymour Hoffman)? Or were the Russian crime kings who supplied him also his betrayers?
Based on David Benioff's novel (and adapted by the author), 25th Hour follows Monty on what he intends to be "one last good night" before heading for jail. There are things to say, people to meet, places to go. But there's paranoia in the air, too, and despair. And there's a messed-up relationship with Monty's dad (Brian Cox) - a New York firefighter - to try to fix.
Easily one of Lee's least strident pictures, 25th Hour nonetheless suffers from a lack of tension at its core. The mystery of who put the DEA onto Monty doesn't percolate with urgency. And there are scenes - notably one rambling, improv-y dialogue with Hoffman and Pepper framed by an apartment window's view of the 9/11 rubble - that are too loose, talky, long.
Still, Norton, bristling with intelligence and rueful self-loathing, is never less than mesmerizing. And Hoffman, playing a prep school English teacher oozing lust for one of his students (Anna Paquin), brings creepy pathos to the performance. Cox and Dawson are solid, while Pepper, as a hotshot Wall Streeter, does his best with the film's least sharply defined role.
It could have been more taut, could have been harder, but 25th Hour still resonates with power and poetry.
Contact movie critic Steven Rea at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com.
25th Hour *** (Out of four stars)
Produced by Spike Lee, Jon Kilik, Tobey Maguire and Julia Chasman, directed by Lee, written by David Benioff, photography by Rodrigo Prieto, music by Terence Blanchard, distributed by Touchstone Pictures.
Running time: 2 hours, 12 mins.
Monty Brogan. . . Edward Norton
Naturelle. . . Rosario Dawson
Jakob. . . Philip Seymour Hoffman
Slaughtery. . . Barry Pepper
James Brogan. . . Brian Cox
Parent's guide: R (violence, profanity, drugs, sex)
Playing at: area theaters