Looking for an engrossing character study crossed with a heist film? Well, have I got a movie for you. Earlier this year, screenwriter Scott Frank made his directorial debut in stunning fashion with The Lookout. The advertising said it was about a bank robbery, but with a twist. One of the characters is manipulated into assisting until the tables get turned. Sounds rather simplistic, but there is much more to it than that. The heist is actually just a small part of the story - a very important part - but it is much more about the main character, played by the ever impressive Joseph Gordon Levitt.
The film opens with a turning point in young Chris Pratt's (Levitt) life. It is a scene of beauty crossed with tragedy that will forever scar the young man. Pratt was a high school hockey star, one of the cool, popular kids who had everything going for him: pretty girlfriend, rich family, the sky was the limit. While out with his friends, heading to a party, there is a horrific car accident that leaves two of his friends dead, his girlfriend seriously injured, and himself brain-damaged.
The story picks up a year removed from the accident. Chris is attempting to put his life in order, struggling with the effects of the brain damage. He has issues with sequencing events, remembering what he needs to do, in addition to impulse and anger control issues, all of which conspire to keep him from living a normal life. To help him cope with these problems he takes classes on how to structure life and is rooming with a well-adjusted blind man, Lewis (Jeff Daniels), who serves as his mentor.
Chris works as a night janitor at a small bank, where he aspires to gain enough control to become a bank teller, but is summarily denied by the manager due to his sequencing issues. One night after work he runs into an old acquaintance from his high school days, Gary Spargo (Matthew Goode), who accepts Chris for who he is now and introduces him to an ex-stripper named Luvlee Lemons (Hot Rod's Isla Fisher), who is more than eager for a hook-up with the former hockey star. Before Chris knows it, he is being manipulated by his new "friend" to assist in a burglary of the bank that he works at.
Article comments
1 - leftcoastjane
I'm nitpicking, I know, but in fact, when the action resumes in the Lookout, it is FOUR years later, not one year later. It has taken Chris four years to even get to the functionality we see taking place here, such as being able to drive, and to hold a job, as menial as it is.