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Summary:
A few years after a tragic car accident, young Chris Pratt struggles with random memory loss and lives day to day with his blind roommate. While working nights as a janitor in a bank, he eventually befriends some guys who are actually a team of thieves that are planning to rob the very bank he works at.

Review:
I watched Mysterious Skin, which I thought was a rather decent movie, and was blown away by Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance. He's not only handsome, but he came off as extremely mature and convincing in his starring role. A couple weeks later, I watched Brick, not even knowing he was in that movie as well! After that, I thought "Dang, this kid's got mad skills. He chooses challenging and unique roles, and has the acting chops to back it up." I didn't know until after seeing this that he was in THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN. I never watched that show. Regardless, Gordon-Levitt is one to watch out for these next ten years, I guarantee it!

The Lookout is his most recent - and most commercially acceptable - movie, and he once again does a great job with what he's given. This time around, the material isn't as unusual or demanding as the previous two flicks I've seen him in, but it's enough to show to anyone who hasn't been introduced to his talents to realize that there's more to this kid than most other child actors (ie, Dakota Fanning - DIE!). Jeff Daniels was great as well as his blind roommate who has been wrought with enough of a tarnished history to "see" more than what he lets on.

The Lookout doesn't introduce many new concepts in the bank heist scenario that we haven't seen before. What was a nice pleasant surprise was the movie's efforts at providing the viewers with characters that we can relate to. It wasn't all about the heist, it also involved trying to establish the main characters' emotional issues and pitfalls. It doesn't center completely on the actions required to rob the bank, it's almost a side issue to the main characters' dealing with the handicaps and dark history of their lives.
Near the last third of the movie, the bank robbery commences, but then again, the actual robbery itself doesn't use much of the screentime. The action is minimal, but action isn't really what this movie is about. It's a drama wrapped around the premise of what most action movies are about. Scott Frank had a steady directing hand, and of course he's a talented screenwriter. He wrote the screenplays to Out of Sight, Get Shorty and Minority Report as well as a few other notables. He's proven in the past that he understands the need for the audience having some kind of emotional link to who we see onscreen, and that was The Lookout's strong point.

As an introduction to who I believe will be a formidable force in the near future in Hollywood with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as long as he doesn't turn to drugs and get stupid), this is an easily digestable formula that doesn't bring any truly fresh ingredients into the mix, but has enough sugar and spice to make the simplistic core of the story go down easily, without providing a bitter aftertaste. I recommend The Lookout if you want to watch a better-than-average character driven piece, with a bank heist somewhere inside all that dramatic hogwash.

GRADE: B

Reviewed 4/3/07