The old saying goes that you don't get a second chance to make a first impression. Yet, for many aspiring actors and actresses, their first break in the business sometimes is less than glamorous or something of which to be proud. And for the viewing public, those first appearances or at least ones that first draw the mainstream eye sometimes don't make the best or promising initial impressions.
Such was the case with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. While a child actor since the ripe old age of seven, he first came to mass public notice in the sitcom, "3rd Rock From the Sun," playing the son of an intergalactic family stationed on Earth. Needless to say, while the young actor and the rest of the cast generated some laughs (that decreased as the show went on and became more banal and inane with age), it didn't really lend anyone to think he would amount to much after the show ran its course.
That was certainly true considering potential feature length dramas, but as occasionally transpires in La-La-Land, certain performers end up surprising most everyone. With an impressive turn in "Brick" and now "The Lookout," Gordon-Levitt proves he may just be one of the hottest and most talented actors of his generation.
In the film, he plays a once-promising high school hockey star who seemed to have had everything and then lost it in a moment of teenage stupidity. Now haunted by the guilt of being responsible for the deaths of some of his friends as well as the continued aftereffects of a serious brain injury, he leads a life of frustration and desire to have his old existence back. Needing to follow a written "to do" list to get through the day, he works as a nighttime bank janitor, and hates the fact that it might be all he'll ever be, a point that hasn't escaped his blind roommate (Jeff Daniels).
Enter the temptation of a better life via a former high school classmate (Matthew Goode). Having staked out various banks to knock off, he and his fellow robbers figure the protagonist will be easy pickings, what with that brain issue and such. Via sex -- courtesy of Isla Fisher -- and the allure of money that he's promised will equal power, they draw him into their web.
What follows is a good example of how to transcend the usual trappings of the crime genre. Marking the directorial debut of Scott Frank -- who makes a solid first impression behind the camera after previously penning the adaptations of Elmore Leonard's "Get Shorty" and "Out of Sight," among other pics -- the film not only works because of a smart script (also courtesy of Frank), but also due to the characters, they way they've been formulated, and the ability of the performers to flesh them out with far more depth than one would have guessed for a film like this.
I've always believed that shades of gray are far more interesting for both heroes and villains than straightforward black and white. Here, we hope that Chris will do the right thing, and even when he makes the wrong choice and things go bad, we root for him to defeat the bad guys. Some of that's obviously due to human nature where someone with a disability of some sort automatically generates sympathy from others. Much, however, is due to the stellar job Frank and Gordon-Levitt do in constructing and bringing that character to life, warts and all.
On the flip side, Goode's bank robber is obviously a bad dude, but he does seem to care about his former classmate, at least on some level, even if that's mostly deeply buried. That attribute adds a decent amount of subtext to the character, something that can also be said -- although to a lesser and thus sketchier extent -- about Fisher's vixen. Even Daniels' character -- also usually sympathetic due to his blindness but also because he seems like the voice of reason -- has darker edges to his past and present.
All of which makes the proceedings quite intriguing, always engaging, and decidedly entertaining in terms of watching the crime drama unfold. My only complaint is that Frank let's the proverbial cat out of the bag too soon. Right from the get-go we know that Gary is bad (as he's seen staking out the bank and recognizing Chris), so the ensuing "romancing" of the protagonist (to lure him into their criminal fold) doesn't have as much punch as it might have had the revelation been a surprise.
Sure, we're allowed superior position (knowing what the character doesn't), but that doesn't generate as much suspense, dread or other related emotional responses, and means we patiently wait for the script to proceed to the next level. It certainly isn't a fatal storytelling flaw by any means, but it does temper the proceedings a bit.
Thankfully, the rest of the writing and the strong performances fill that void, thus ensuring that the film never feels boring or ends up spinning its wheels. And with an award-worthy performance as the damaged man and soul, Gordon-Levitt proves he's light years away from his earlier sitcom beginning. "The Lookout" rates as a 7 out of 10.
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