Grade: B
Synopsis: A young man (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) with a head injury meets a charismatic stranger interested in his job as an after-hours janitor at a bank.
The Lookout is a well-written small town noir highlighted by a pair of great performances from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jeff Daniels.
Gordon-Levitt is very good as the lead. Gordon-Levitt could easily have overdone his role as a head-injury survivor, but instead he opts to take the subtler road, and the result is a truly first-rate performance. His is a quiet struggle. There are no big tantrums or breakdowns, just a man trying his best to cope with the bad hand life dealt him.
Jeff Daniels also turns in a memorable performance as Gordon-Levitt’s character’s blind roommate. Aside from nailing the physical characteristics, Daniels also serves as the comic relief, rattling off some of the funniest lines in the script.
The script by director Scott Frank is solid, though it perhaps would have made a better novel than film. The motion picture medium doesn’t provide enough room to adequately explore Gordon-Levitt’s character pre and post head injury. In the film, we never get a sense of what his character was like before his accident. In addition to lending a greater contrast to his behavior post accident, this could have also provided a greater impetus for his actions later in the film.
That said, The Lookout’s biggest flaw lies in Scott Frank as a director. While he’s able to elicit great performances from his cast, he lacks the visual flair and sense of timing necessary to make the movie sizzle. This is a movie competently, but unremarkably, directed and the story deserves better.
Bottom Line: A solid, well-written, and often overlooked small town noir that deserves a bigger audience. Recommended.
