Scenes of the Crime Blog-A-thon: The Lookout

As you may know after reading some of my blog posts, one of my favorite actors (if not, my number one favorite actor) of all time is Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I've read up on him and I agree with many of his thoughts about the film industry as well as what an actor should be expected to do to prepare for a role. I've been watching every film that he stars in, and recently, I watched The Lookout.

In The Lookout, JGL stars as Chris Pratt, a once promising high school athlete who faces many challenges after being involved in a car wreck. I felt a bit of a Memento vibe when watching this film, as Chris forgets a lot of things and has to rely on notes to remember them. Chris works as a janitor at a bank, which he discovers is going to be robbed. He is forced into participating in the robbery, and finds himself in more danger than he initially anticipated.

The Lookout is one of those films you can take for face value and enjoy in one viewing. This film is not deep or extremely memorable in any sense, but it is well worth watching because of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance and because it is an all-around good crime film. The best thing about this film is the characters, which are easy to follow and develop a sense of compassion for. You can easily empathize with JGL's character because he's a good guy that gets caught in a bad situation. This could potentially be a good character study film as well as a crime thriller.

I can see where this film could get some criticism. Chris' therapist, Janet, is in one scene in the film and we never see her again. There are subtle (and not so-subtle) hints of a romantic/physical relationship between the two of them, and this subplot never really pans out. As a whole, this is a somewhat generic crime film from the standpoint that it sticks with many of the conventions of the crime genre, and doesn't bring a whole lot of new ideas to the table.

The Lookout is a film with great characters but a story most of us crime fanatics have seen many times before. I watched this film purely to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a different role and to continue my studies on a phenomenal yet underrated actor that I'm sure will garner some attention for his acting and directing talents.

MY RATING:

3.5 out of 5

-Kevin A. Millward