DUBLIN’S THOUGHT ON: 25^th Hour

25^th Hour was on TV last night. After cooking and eating all evening I collapsed in my old gray chair and watched it for what is probably the third or fourth time. What a great frigging movie. The feeling it gives, the acting, the characters, the writing, the cinematography; it’s probably Spike Lee’s masterpiece. Some people may not agree saying that Malcolm X still stands as the best movie Spike has done but the advantage 25^th Hour has on X is that Spike Lee doesn’t show up in it. Spike’s annoying performance pushes what is otherwise a masterpiece to a close 2^nd.

25^th Hour is completely unique and fearless in all its directions. When it first came out (around 2002?) a lot of people had interesting theories about what it meant and how the character of Monty (Ed Norton) represented America and the US’s unsure future. Even without that powerful theme the movie stands by itself just by pulling the viewer so deeply into the experience of Monty’s last night of freedom before he does a 7 year bid for drugs. Look at the cast: Phillip Seymour Hoffman (I’m on this guy’s nut sack for life after Capote), Ed Norton (dude’s a badass. He gives Monty a vulnerability and realness that you can relate too when the character is kind of a scumbag that doesn’t really deserve much pity), and Barry Pepper (what’s up with Pepper? He gets stuck in straight crap most of the time. Battleship Earth? What the f*ck? More casting directors should take a look at 25^th Hour to see what the guy can do. He gives a career making turn as Frank and I love the line “I’m not drunk. I’m Irish. I can’t get drunk.”) These actors truly bring their characters to life and express the real love, hate, and tension between three lifelong friends.

With all that being said I should mention that I don’t much care for the acting of either Rosario Dawson or Anna Paquin (spelling?) who have the main female roles in 25^th but they both do solid work in this film. It’s interesting what the writer did with building mistrust with Naturale (Dawson) and then breaking the cliché and exposing what could be a backstabbing gold-digger as a true hearted and supportive woman. There are tensions about race that are just below the surface but unlike some of Spike’s other movies these racial tensions don’t burst out and go over the top. 25^th is that much better for it.