Review of 25th Hour (2002) by Nathan F — 27 Jan 2010

I don't like Spike Lee's America; alternating between despair, disgust, and dependence, 25th Hour never coalesces into the true colors portrait of the United States that it intends to be. The powerhouse ending comes close with an attuned and painful retrospectiveness; but most of the action is hateful--whether it's Edward Norton's bathroom diatribe (much praised for its misread "anger," when it's really just an excuse for unchecked contempt), Barry Pepper's ceaselessly selfish Wall Street trader or Philip Seymour Hoffman, showing up in a role as a depressed and miserable middle-aged man in a mid-life crisis of sorts--and what else is new? The 9/11 undertones, as well as the gangster and father plots, are mostly benign.

Lee's story is supposed to be an introspective look at a minor criminal's last days, but he doesn't actually give a shit about Monty, just the people, places and things around him. Lee's still too seething to see straight into someone; he still conflates the personal and the political.

He'll never get inside the head of any of his characters--he's too busy speaking for all of them.