By Ramona Prioleau

In OZ, a skinny, good-looking Irish kid from the neighborhood can play both sides against the middle and avoid an assault to his manhood. When the setting is New York City rather than Em City and the character is Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) rather than Ryan O’Reilly, realism prevails. As such, in 25th Hour, Monty faces the prospect of a 7-year stretch for drug trafficking with dread and a desire to spend his last day with family and friends.

The unavoidable certainty of his fate weighs on Monty as he awakens on the eve of his incarceration. Despite the chin-up platitudes from those close to him, Monty is aware of his dim future in prison. While woeful and wary during his last day of freedom, Monty contemplates how to better his chances of survival behind bars. It’s also a day during which he reflects on one’s possibilities at the brink of adulthood and which white line is best to get the party jumping.

25th Hour, directed by Spike Lee, is based on the book of the same name from a screenplay written by the novel’s author, David Benioff. Produced after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, 25th Hour weaves the lingering impact of 9/11 carefully into the film. Not at all garish, the references add texture to a film that is steeped firmly in the culture and lifestyle of New York City – an environment in which tracking down those that commit crimes against humanity parallels the quest for those who are a scourge upon the community.

As with most Spike Lee productions, 25th Hour is photographed with a richness and depth that is at times spectacular. Most vivid in that regard is 25th Hour’s credit sequence that rolls against a black backdrop with a splotch of iridescent blue. This seemingly computer-generated visual is shortly revealed to be the memorial towers of light at Ground Zero thereby making the ordinary compelling. In a sense, such can be said of the film as a whole.

Those long familiar with Spike Lee’s issue-filled films and opinionated storytelling will find that his direction is understated and deliberate in 25th Hour. In fact, but for Spike’s signature use of dollies to glide actors through a couple of shots, it’s easy to forget whose joint this is. Within a film, where most of the characters are able to blossom, Edward Norton’s Monty is in full bloom. Norton is his most engaging during Monty’s F-the world diatribe that ends in honest self-deprecation for the path that he chose to walk. For more on 25th Hour, click here. M

December 2002

Author: MOSAEC