25th Hour - Strange Spike turf, but a winner

25th Hour was sure to get lost amongst the Hollywood crap in 2002 (and it did). But those wanting to take a break from alot of garbage still being shown in theatres, 25th Hour is a rental that you might normally overlook, but doing so would be to miss out on a perfect display of life in the wake of 9/11: A twon lost in confusion, with citizens bearing the same dismay. A city trying to find some kind of clarity and closure amidts the ruin.

Edward Norton (is this guy ever bad?) plays Monty, a petty drug dealer. Monty is on his way to the big house for 7 years after finally being nailed by the DEA. So for his last day as a free man, he spends quality with family and friends. And it's the little things like this that give this stunner of a movie a heartbeat. Whether Monty's pondering the thought that his girl (Rosario Dwason) ratted him out, or whether he's finding a good home for his dog, you feel a knot in your stomach; a pitty for this guy and the way his life turned out.

Sometimes this movie can throw in more sub-plots and ideas then it needs (Phillip Seymour Hoffmans' lust for a teenage girl is pure movie filler), but it doesn't distract from the movie's heartbreaking premisce.
Long and sometimes longwinded, 25th Hour may lull you to sleep but then wake you up with deliciously interesting dialogue and scenes, such as Monty's love/hate slam on every major race, religion, and ethnicity in the city (He even slams Jesus Christ), or when his father pictures a life for Monty outside of prison (If you don't choke back tears on this scene, then you must be a zombie).

Argues aside, 25th Hour is a film that will reward people willing to take the ride. And if your a Norton fan, then what the **** are you waiting for?

Stellar gives it 3 (out of 4) stars

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Stellar Music......By Stellar:
Sleater-Kinney - One Beat
The Sleepy Jackson - Lovers
Jeff Buckley - Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk
At The Drive-In - Acrobatic Tenemant
Air - Moon Safari

"I'm the man,"
~ David Carradine, Kill Bill Vol. 2

Nice review, Stellar. I love 25th Hour myself.

I have to disagree with you about Hoffman's desires for that teen though. I think the telling of that part of the story is relevant when depicting the three friends in the story and their different kinds of relationship to women. It's three different types of characters, something that is displayed all through the film even if the Norton character is the main one, and the Hoffman character's desire for teenage lust is an important part in this depiction.

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The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".

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They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

Another Stellar write up. I also love this film, one of nortons best.

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