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25th Hour (2002)

Director: Spike Lee

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Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

This is the last day of freedom for convicted drug dealer Monty Brogan (Norton). His best buddies Jacob (Hoffman) and Slaughtery (Pepper) rally to show him one last night on the town, with or without Monty's girlfriend Naturelle (Dawson), who may or may not have shopped him to the cops. Terrified of what awaits him, and ashamed of his past, Monty has no appetite to settle any scores - he just has one more favour he wants to ask of his friends. Working from a script by David Benioff based on his own novel, Lee is in 'director for hire' mode, though New York stories remain his speciality. That special relationship with the city probably accounts for the picture's doomy ambience, an undertow of melancholy resignation doubtless magnified by the unscripted intrusion of 9/11. The Twin Towers are a lacuna overshadowing Monty's relatively trivial fate. Rodrigo Prieto gives the visuals a sombre lustre and Lee fashions numerous striking, eventful scenes, but while 25th Hour has a several arresting characters struggling with credible problems, regrettably Monty isn't one of them.

Author: TCh

Time Out Film Guide


User reviews of this film

  • Diz Pareunia said...
    Posted on Jul 21 2011 18:38 What happened to the other, more interesting half of the review?
    Report as inappropriate

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