The Lookout

It is always nice when a movie is solid. It has solid acting, writing, directing and a solid interesting story, and the lookout is all of those things. It is a solid two handed dunk or a base hit up the middle. It is a nice solid movie. However, it is also kind of boring but it is so “nice.” All of the pieces are there, but something just doesn’t click to raise this above just an enjoyable experience. Don’t think I am really complaining because often time a nice movie on a nice Saturday afternoon is just what the doctor ordered, but I just kept thinking it was going to get over the hump and really wow me in some way.


Joseph Gordon-Levitt, fresh from 2 years of great performances (Brick and Mysterious Skin), stars in this movie as a teenager who had everything until a vicious vehicle accident left him in a state of near retardation. He has to write everything down to remember it, he doesn’t having a filtering system when he speaks and is prone to random fits of aggression and carries the accident with him wherever he goes because he was the cause of the accident that killed two of his best friends. Levitt is an incredibly talented young man, don’t let that stint on a bad sitcom about aliens fool you, this kid is the real deal. He internalizes his thoughts and actions in a way that is vastly beyond his years and I imagine soon he will be recognized for not being afraid to take interesting roles. In this role he walks, acts and talks exactly how you would expect, but even if fits of anger you know there is something in his eyes beyond what words can express. Jeff Daniels as his blind roommate is a solid comic relief character and is among his best acting ever, as well. After that we have a few supporting roles, furthering this story.


See the story is this, Levitt now works as a janitor at a bank and a bad guy played by Matthew Goode (I have no idea who he is) wants to rob the bank so he befriends Levitt under the pretense that he just wants to be a friend. Levitt, dying to feel a sense of normalcy and intoxicated by the feminine wiles of Ilsa Fisher (Wedding Crashers) decides to give in to the friendship. Goode plays Spago exactly how you would expect and the story that follows plays pretty much how you would expect and it is done well enough, but in the end, two loose end plot points are left dangling for no apparent reason and one line of voice over narrative to tie up the caper really kind of shows lazy writing which kind of ruins the end of the movie for me.