The Lookout

(2007, 99 min) Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) was the king of high school: a senior, star of the hockey team, basking in strong friendships and the love of a beautiful girl, his future seemed secure. Son of a wealthy town father, he was known and liked throughout his community. Four years later, he’s living in a decrepit apartment in a seedy part of town. He needs to check a list every morning to make sure he takes care of the most basic, banal tasks (like having breakfast). His life imploded when his speeding car ran into a threshing machine. He now spends his days in rehab classes, retraining his mind after a catastrophic head injury; his nights are spent as the janitor of the town bank. He aspires to be a teller. He misses his friends.

Chris meets Gary Spargo (Matthew Goode, a long way from “Miss Marple” and Match Point), who says he briefly dated Chris’ sister. Gary zeroes in on the empty, unfulfilled spaces in Chris’ once privileged life — friendship, intimacy, pride — and acerbates his dissatisfactions to manipulate and control. Chris feels empowered by the sudden rush of apparent camaraderie and goodwill, but his roommate Lewis (Jeff Daniels) smells a rat . . . Lewis is blind, but sees what Chris can’t. Or won’t. Then Gary starts talking bank heist.

First-time feature director Scott Frank also wrote the script (as he did for The Interpreter, Out of Sight, Get Shorty and others), and delivers an immediately involving and tightly structured thriller. The ensemble deliver concise and potent performances, and the film moves with focused intent, without extraneous baggage. The Lookout is satisfying and reflective, an intelligent examination of loss and betrayal and possible redemption.

– Ann Yarabinee

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