 The
25th Hour
by David Benioff
The 25th Hour is a wonderfully written first novel that convincingly
portrays the New York City of Wall Street brokers and middle-class
white drug dealers, the new affluent class in a city where money can
buy you almost anything and is often the most important factor in
young people's lives.
Monty
Brogan is about to start his last day of freedom before turning
himself into the authorities and serving a seven-year term for drug
dealing. He's a charming young man who had always dreamed of being
a fireman, following in the working-class footsteps of his father,
who has had to put up his bar in Queens as bond so that his son
can stay out of jail until his sentence begins. Monty, named for
Montgomery Clift, does not know how he managed to get himself into
this predicament. It was easy money and it carried so many perks,
and you'll feel more than a little sympathy for this young man who
has managed to kill his own dream for courtside seats at Madison
Square Garden.
But
before he goes to prison, Monty wants to have one last night out
on the town with his two best friends. Frank Slattery is a bond
trader, one of the best and most successful risk takers in a very
risky business. The other is Jakob Elinsky, an English teacher who
envies his friends' lifestyles but who has no intention of ever
giving up his job for the easy money, despite the disillusionment
of teaching high school students in a tough school.
The
three young men enjoy the night into the early morning as they eat,
drink, and visit the hottest spots in town. It's a sad night for
Monty, but he has a plan that neither Frank nor Jacob know about--and
it makes for a shocking ending to this brilliant and disturbing
story. --Otto Penzler.
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 Everyone
always talks about how controversial Spike Lee is. A lot of film
critics and journalists write more about his antics at basketball
games (he's an enthusiastic fan, so what!) and comments he makes
during interviews than they do his films. And he has been accused
of being racist, among other things. Well, guess what? The guy's
a brilliant filmmaker, and writers need only concern themselves
with this. But most writers seem to have an anti-Spike Lee bias
evidenced in their tirades on him and his films. Why a writer would
concentrate on Lee as a person-even though they're operating on
assumptions, as I'm sure they know absolutely nothing about him-is
beyond me, because it's completely irrelevant. He's a great artist
who has given us some of the best, most influential, moving films
over the past 15 years: Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, Clockers,
Get on the Bus, Four Little Girls, to name a few.  25th
Hour is based on David
Benioff's novel of the same name. It follows drug dealer Monty
Brogan (Edward Norton) through his final day of freedom before a
seven-year prison sentence, and I found it in some ways comparable
to Clockers, an adaptation of Richard Price's novel of the same
name, inasmuch as the presentation, style and colors are similar.
And both films look at drug dealers who want to change, who regret
the choices they have made and feel a sense of remorse. There is
a scene where Brogan is talking with one of his best friends, Frank
(Barry Pepper), a Wall Street trader, about how he was going to
get out of the drug game six months before he got caught, and invest
in stocks and mutual funds, but he got greedy. And all he can do
now is think about how he could have changed his life before it
was too late.
 Some
people may have difficulty with the fact that Norton's character
is so likable. Should we be empathizing with a drug dealer? Is he
not getting what he deserves? In a harrowing conversation between
Frank and Jacob (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), another of Brogan's close
friends, Frank exclaims that Monty is getting exactly what he deserves.
He should have to pay for what he has done, for getting rich off
of other people's misery. The backdrop of this scene is ground zero-the
two look down on it from Frank's apartment window-making it that
much more chilling. It is a powerful comment on death and destruction.
Frank talks about Monty's options (running, suicide, prison), suggesting
that no matter which he chooses, the outcome is the same: He's Gone!
 Monty's
girlfriend, Naturelle (Rosario Dawson), is concerned that he's going
to hurt himself. She wants nothing more than to spend time with
him and talk on his final day, but is continually shunned. Through
flashbacks we see how the two met, and we also see how Monty gets
caught, leading us to believe that it could have been Naturelle
who set him up. She was one of two people who knew where Monty hid
the drugs and money. Monty himself begins to suspect Naturelle;
his father, however, defends her, saying she's a good girl.
 Monty
has a few things he has to do on his final day of freedom: visit
his father, attend a going away party at a nightclub, tie up a few
loose ends, say goodbye to his two best friends and girlfriend,
find a home for his dog, Doyle, and so on, right up to the hard
to watch 25th hour. The film has no specific plot; it simply follows
him through this last day, looking at the choices he has made and
their consequences, which is an underlying theme in the film.
 Monty
Brogan knows he screwed up. It's his fault he's going to prison.
He was greedy. He made poor choices. But in one brilliant scene
Brogan tries to blame everyone but himself. It is one of the most
chilling and memorable scenes in the film. In the washroom of his
father's bar he notices a small "f*ck you" written in
silver on the mirror and he goes off on a diatribe calling out every
ethnic, socioeconomic, and religious group in the city of New York-he
spares no one. The heightened colors and camera work are incredible.
But after blaming everyone in the city, including his friends and
family-and Jesus, for that matter-he stands in the mirror looking
at only himself, and says, "No, f*ck you Monty. You had it
all and you blew it." The lighting is such that we only see
one side of Monty's face, perhaps symbolic of his inner struggle
between light and darkness, perhaps not, but either way it's effective.
Norton convincingly communicates Brogan's anger and regret.
 But
not only Brogan is faced with tough decisions and the ensuing consequences.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman's character, a somewhat socially inept schoolteacher,
is obsessing over one of his students, played by Anna Paquin, who
he happens to bump into at the nightclub where they are having Monty's
going away party. He does his best to keep his distance, but his
lust for her eventually gets the best of him and he kisses her.
 Spike
Lee sets the scene up and finishes it perfectly, bringing Paquin
in on a dolly and taking Hoffman out on one-Lee's signature shot
where he puts both the actor and camera on a dolly to create a floating
effect-the mood changing drastically from start to finish, as Paquin's
entrance is dream-like, sexy, and Hoffman's exit is despondent,
disparaging, his facial expression communicating his disbelief,
perhaps horror.
 25th
Hour is a fantastic film. Spike Lee is a thought-provoking, creative,
talented filmmaker, and it's time people stop writing or talking
about their notions of him and start concentrating on his work,
because it's spectacular. With this film Lee again proves to be
one of our most innovative filmmakers, while Edward Norton proves
to be one of our best actors. And the supporting cast is phenomenal,
from Rosario Dawson to Brian Cox to Barry Pepper to Phillip Seymour
Hoffman to Anna Paquin. It's gritty. It's real. It's honest. And
it's profound, showing us that losing everything is often the consequence
of destructive decisions.
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REVIEW
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