Review of 25th Hour (2002) by Alex M — 12 Aug 2012

[size=3]Erratic director Spike Lee delivers yet another film that is tantalizingly close to greatness before it is undermined by its pretensions. [i]25th Hour [/i]tells the story of a drug dealer played by Edward Norton who has one day left before he has to report to jail for a sentence of seven years. The movie tracks the last day of his freedom as he tries to make peace with his father, express his love for his girlfriend and spend one last night celebrating with his childhood friends. Lee brilliantly evokes an elegiac tone for the film, and he gives equal time and consideration to the drug dealer's friends, played by Barry Pepper and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Those two characters are the two most interesting in the film...Pepper is a stock broker who values his own interests above anyone elses, Hoffman is a high school teacher who is beginning to feel attracted to one of his own students. Despite the differences in what the friends did with their lives, they are all linked by their tendency to ignore their own morals at crucial points. Unfortunately, Lee is also bent on making a link between this simple story and the September 11th terrorist attacks and their effect on New York City. The mixture does not work, and rather than adding to the dimensions of the characters, the references to 9/11 are simply jarring and distracting. Also baffling is a sequence at the end of the film depicting an alternate life for Norton's character. Although supposedly profound, the sequence is clumsily handled and almost laughable. Without these glaring flaws, [i]25th Hour [/i]might have been a masterful multi-character study. With them, it is a fascinating near-miss.[/size].

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NOTE: Ten years later, and I've rewatched 25th Hour and very much appreciate it now. I'll be updating this review at some point soon.