The Lookout

Plot synopsis:
While driving his car with the lights off, high school sports star Chris Pratt crashes into a combine stalled on the road. Two occupants of the car are killed while Chris and his girlfriend Kelly survive. However, the crash leaves Chris with lasting mental impairments, including anterograde amnesia, along with some anger management issues.
Four years later, he's in classes to learn new skills, including the simple sequencing of daily tasks to compensate for his inability to remember, and keeps notes to himself in a small notebook. Challenged by a tough case manager to build a life despite his injuries, he is emotionally supported by his roommate, a blind man named Lewis, but receives only financial support from his wealthy family. Chris works nights, cleaning a small-town bank. Aside from Lewis his only friend is Ted, a seemingly clumsy Sheriff's Deputy who checks in on Chris regularly. Chris repeatedly tries to convince the bank's manager, Mr Tuttle, to allow him to apply for a teller job, to no avail. Chris soon comes under the scrutiny of a gang planning to rob the bank. Their leader, Gary, who knew Chris from high school and resented his wealth and popularity as a hockey star before his accident, befriends him and uses a young woman, Luvlee Lemons, to seduce him. Taunted by the gang about the limitations of his life since the accident, Chris initially goes along with the scheme. His frustrations trickle down into confrontations with his friends, Lewis and Ted.
When the gang arrives the night of the robbery, Chris tells them he has changed his mind. But they tell him it's too late and force him to empty the vault at gunpoint. His friend Ted, the deputy, stumbles into the robbery while delivering doughnuts to Chris, and triggers a shootout. The deputy and two of the gang members, Marty and Cork, are killed. Meanwhile Chris escapes in the getaway car, and when he realizes he's got the money they stole, he returns compulsively to the site of his accident, where he buries the money roadside. Gary is seriously wounded and gets away with the other bank robber, Bone. When Chris returns to his apartment he sees the lights on and realizes something is wrong, and when he calls discovers Gary and Bone have taken Lewis hostage to get the money back. Chris, using his new sequencing skills, hatches a plan to stay alive and save his friend. But the robbers catch him napping at the place they arranged to meet, and they force him to take them to the site of the buried cash.
While Chris digs in the snow to retrieve the money, Gary's condition is rapidly deteriorating. Chris gives one of two bags to Bone, who is preparing to execute Lewis, but Chris uses the shotgun he stashed in the other bag to shoot and kill Bone before he can react. Gary collapses and dies. Chris returns the money and turns himself in, but the investigation by the FBI concludes that he was not responsible due to his medical state - and because the robbers failed to disconnect the video surveillance in the bank, allowing the FBI to see the gang forcing Chris to act at gunpoint.
In the aftermath, Chris and Lewis reconcile, and open a restaurant together with a loan from the bank. Chris hopes Kelly will forgive him for the loss of her leg in the accident, and that one day he will find the courage to talk to her again.

Tags: suspenseful, neo noir, murder, violence, flashback

Review:
He's come along way.After a horrible accident which killed two people, seriously wounded another, and left Chris Pratt (Levitt) with a brain injury which makes it nearly impossible for him to remember things without writing them down in a notebook that he carries with him, he is no longer the cocky hockey player.
Instead he now lives his life while working as a janitor in a bank and living with a blind roommate named Lewis (Jeff Daniels in a fascinating performance).While drinking at a bar, he meets the charismatic Gary Spargo (played by Matthew Goode) who then introduces Chris to the lovely Luvlee Lemons (Isla Fischer.) They later asked him to serve as lookout while they rob the bank he works at.
In 2003, in Kansas, the popular and reckless high school hockey player Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) goes to a party with his girlfriend and two friends on the backseat of his convertible through the old Route 24.
Jeff Daniels again dons a Beard and steals his scenes, every line of his dialog either makes you laugh, think or just compels the movie forward, and Joseph Gordon Levitt again proves why he is capable of being one of the next great movie stars.
Don't think the sweet Lookout will carry the same tension because it so heavily relies on the character exposition of its protagonist, Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), that the heist is just an artful ending to an absorbing study of depression and rehabilitation.Chris, a rock-star hockey player in high school, terminates that celebrity with a reckless accident that leaves him impaired emotionally and physically.
Both actors exude realistic, humorous, world weary personas that perfectly reveal the ambivalence Chris brings to this life-defining crime.The Lookout is a small film, released at dumping time right after the Oscars, but an invigorating study of humans under stress.
The movie is, upon reflection, reminiscent of realist films from the 1970s in its story and directorial style.The cinematography and editing are adequate, yet strangely, in many scenes, particularly those that take place at the main character's family's home and those that takes place at the bank, have great atmosphere, a coziness.What I admire about the movie is that it avoids clichés that seem on the very brink of being outrageous displays of them.
This quiet, understated drama-thriller may take a while to get going, but the characters are fascinating and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jeff Daniels have a wonderful chemistry that lends the film an unexpected heart.
There's a neat Fargo-like quality to a lot of the characters and dialogue and while it covers few locations it has that convincing small town feel.Gordon-Levitt is a night janitor at a local bank who's targeted by a gang and finessed into acting as a lookout while they rob it.
The main bad guy has value, although the femme fatale, played by Isla Fisher is probably too good to be true- and her character arc is left open-ended.Roped and corralled into helping to rob his bank, he starts to sense all in not right-but its too late to back out now.............All in all, I really enjoyed this until the top-and-tail ending.
In this film, Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and three others collide head-on into a truck leaving his friends dead, girlfriend injured and him brain-damaged.
"The Lookout" tells the story of super famous high school hockey player Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who gets into a vicious car accident.
Gordon-Levitt does another fine job of playing the protagonist in a film-noir movie, the other film being "Brick." His face throughout the film harshly displays the anguish and frustration he constantly experiences with his mental disability.Frank really tries hard to make this film work, but he needs to complete his storytelling first.
Though beautifully acted, well developed characters and the screenplay for what its worth holds together, I didn't really seem to care what happens in the end.Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) drives 3 of his friends to an accident on their prom night ending his short but a successful stint in hockey.
The story is set 4 years after the accident and now he is attending life skills classes that helps people similar to him, labels and maintains a notepad to remember his daily activities, living with a blind partner Lewis (Jeff Daniels) and works as a janitor in a bank at night.
While frustrated with his hopeless life and controlling family, his life starts to look ahead when a stranger Gary (Matthew Goode) gives him an offer to rob the bank he works in (but first seduces him with Luvlee (Isla Fisher)).The protagonist's condition is not well thought out and is used wherever convenient, some characters are just cut out from the movie abruptly like the co-survivor of the accident Janet (Carla Gugino) or Isla Fisher during the later part of the movie.
Isla Fisher is simply beautiful and a chance encounter with her and Jeff Daniels is probably the films most quotable scene but having only seen it once I don't want to ruin Mr. Franks fine writing by misquoting from it and I also don't want to spoil anything at all about this film.I don't think Joseph Gordon-Levitt will be remembered at awards time, but I hope he is.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Chris Pratt (unfortunate last name there, Mr. Frank!), who is a young, good looking guy and the star of his high school hockey team.
Sadly I didn't really believe Jeff Daniels as Chris Pratt's blind friend Lewis (too many mannerisms, too much the wise old sage, maybe Morgan Freeman was too expensive?) and I thought that the lovely Isla Fisher as the interestingly monickered Luvlee Lemons (she plays a stripper) was completely miscast.
In this movie, he plays Chris Pratt, former king of his rural Kansas high school, now a janitor and night watchman in a dead end job at a bank after a car accident leaves his brain addled.
But things go badly, Chris finds out he's been used as little more than a dupe, and he gets a chance to take control when he ends up with all of the stolen money that the hoods desperately want back.This movie belongs to that genre of films about the kinds of hopeless crime that occur out in the wide open spaces of Nowheresville, U.S.A. It's a movie whose impact relies on good plotting, pacing and suspense rather than graphic violence, and unlike so many of the films Hollywood has been producing lately, it doesn't leave you feeling awful and gloomy.Jeff Daniels, who in recent years has become one of my favorite actors, does more fine work as Chris's blind friend Lewis, who, despite his handicap, sees more than anybody else in the movie.Grade: A.
There's also the possibility for romance, as Chris meets a former exotic dancer, "Luvlee" (the radiant Isla Fisher).Bruce McGill, Alberta Watson, Carla Gugino (who's kind of wasted in a one-scene role), Alex Borstein, the amusing Sergio Di Zio, David Huband, Laura Vandervoort, and Greg Dunham round out a solid supporting cast, but the film basically rests on the capable shoulders of Gordon-Levitt, who earns rooting interest early on and maintains it all the way to the end.Although set in Kansas, this was actually filmed in the city of Winnipeg (my hometown) and the town of Hartney, in Manitoba, Canada.Eight out of 10..
He is now very dependent on others although he tries do do a lot of things for himself, including living with a blind roommate (who by the way is played by the amazing Jeff Daniels) Anyways he works at a bank as a Janitor and every night he goes to the town bar.
Gordon-Levitt plays Chris simply as a person who has a brain injury, and writer-director Scott Frank not only focuses on the heist instead of the tragedy of the brain injury, but he utilizes this plot element to create the story.The story is rather simple, and could easily have been made into a Disney movie (almost).
That young man is excellent in Brick and Mysterious Skin.All the characters are so well done - writing was excellent...and all the actors - Jeff Daniels, Isla Fisher, and Matthew Goode did a fine job of sort of "under acting"...rare these days to see in any films...but just makes the film such a jewel.
THE LOOKOUT, written and directed by Scott Frank (who also wrote 'The Interpreter', 'Minority Report', 'Get Shorty', 'Dead Again', etc.) is a clever story of a bank robbery but that is really a secondary plot to this excellent drama that deals with characters with impairments and how they cope with the world at large.
He is befriended by Gary Spargo (Matthew Goode) and Luvlee (Isla Fisher) who recruits him into robbing the bank.Writer Scott Frank takes his first stab at directing with this intriguing character thriller.
However, sometimes the past and present are not equally important and interesting, their intertwining is rather friable, but thanks to customarily good performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Chris Pratt and peculiarly distinctive performance by Jeff Daniels as Lewis the events are interesting to follow.
This is a movie you gotta be patient with, because the main plot is crafted in a slow pace, in order you get to know first Pratt's current and past life, his feelings and ambitions that led him to do what he did, and his wise blind friend Lewis, played brilliantly by Jeff Daniels.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, clearly one of the best actors in the business, goes accent and all into the role of Chris Pratt, a once highly-touted hockey player with an affluent family, a blind roommate and short-term memory loss conflicting with his desire to live normally.
"The Lookout" is a heist cum dram movie about Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) whose life turns upside down after a horrific accident.
The film starts off really well and grabs you almost until the end (and the end in my opinion is the only weak part of the movie as it is predictable and inappropriate, don't get me wrong it is good but i was expecting more).Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance is remarkable as the young Chris Pratt, handsome and talented hockey player, the dream of every girl and a role model for every boy.
Joseph-Gordon Levitt plays Chris, young man, who is trying to get back to normal life after a car crash, which caused him a brain injury.
I rent a decent amount of movies and almost always feel annoyed at wasting a couple hours after they're done, this one you won't be wasting your time on, very good, a true, honest representation of how things can easily go wrong in a person's life, and a great job by Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing a damaged individual trying to put his life back together.
These are character based movies and 'The Lookout' doesn't just follow suit but even trumps the other two aces.The basic plot revolves around Chris Pratt who is the all American High School Hero- popular and good looking, excelling at sports and widely idolised by all around him.
It's all about a brain injured young man trying to regain some of his old life back and how evil forces use him for their own evil goals.I had seen films with Jeff Daniels who is one heck of a fine actor but never heard of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Matthew Goode,Isla Fisher,Carla Gugino and the rest.
While far from perfect, it was definitely worth the time.Gordon-Levitt plays Chris Pratt, a former high school hockey star who has been left lost in the world after a tragic car accident claimed two of his friends and his ability to remember what he should do next at every moment of his life, without the help of his notebook of instructions.
Chris, the main character (actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt in an excellent performance), must learn how to cope with life from a new perspective after experiencing severe head/brain trauma; where as once he was an able bodied functioning person, he is now considered disabled to some extent.
As many other people in the movies' industry,screenwriter Scott Frank is famous in what he does for not being bad or mediocre.It does not mean his work is extraordinary(with the exception of Out of Sight,based on a book)but,for the moment,most of his work has been solid but not too memorable.In his original screenplays(like Little Man Tate or Dead Again)or in the various adaptations he has done(like Flight of the Phoenix or Heaven's Prisoners),his screenplays balance intelligence with the most popular elements from commercial movies.But,I think that in The Lookout(which also is his amazing first movie as a director),Frank made the best screenplay of his career.The Lookout is an intelligent and amazing movie.Frank constructed the screenplay in a slow but never boring way,and the screenplay also has an excellent development of the characters.So,at the end of the movie,we care about their destinies.Joseph Gordon-Levitt makes an extraordinary work as an actor.He makes a so natural performance that he does not seem to be acting.The only fail I found on this movie is that the ending is a little bit predictable.But there's still a lot of great elements on this movie.The Lookout is an excellent film with an extraordinary main performance.Frank shows a lot of potential as a director.The Lookout is a great movie..
That question is never answered for us or for Chris and, quite frankly, probably shouldn't be.In addition to Gordon-Levitt, there are first-rate performances by Jeff Daniels, Matthew Goode and Isla Fisher.
In part, THE LOOKOUT is a character study about Chris Pratt (Gordon-Levitt), a young man who once recklessly crashed his car as a teenager.
The film primarily takes place four years after the accident, when Pratt is in his 20s and struggling to live his life with short-term memory loss and almost without the ability to think laterally (i.e. attributing step-by-step logic to daily routine activities.) He lives with a blind-man (Daniels) and has a low-rung job as a night janitor at a small Mid-Western bank.
Vulnerable and without the support of his parents, Pratt decides to help Goode out, and the heist begins...On first impressions, THE LOOKOUT sounds like a mash-up that won't work, yet thanks to an excellent script by director Scott Frank (screenwriter of DEAD AGAIN, GET SHORTY and MINORITY REPORT) and an amazing performance by Joseph-Gordon Levitt as Pratt, this is an exceptional movie.
Its story is being told in a very slow, rather dry way and without any long shootings or huge explosion scenes.Despite of this, though, the acting of Jeff Daniels as well as Joseph Gordon-Levitt is definitely moving and makes the whole film worth seeing.
The movie is somewhat slow into getting to the main plot but it is necessary to build up an idea of what Chris is like and also of the characters around him, like his good friend Lewis (Daniels).
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is "The Lookout," a 2007 film written and directed by Scott Frank which also stars Jeff Daniels and Matthew Goode.Chris (Gordon-Levitt) is a young man who was riding with friends one night and turned his car lights off -- when he turns them on, it's too late to avoid a combine stuck in the middle of the road.
It's a classic tale of a promising someone being cut down to size by a tragedy and having to live with the mistakes made, fused with a heist plot that made it all a very compelling premise.And who better to play this character of Chris Pratt than Joseph Gordon-Levitt?
Frank then took his last rewrite of the script, and with his knowledge of film-making from his experiences on other writing gigs, he set out to create The Lookout in an independent fashion.Joseph Gordon Levitt plays Chris Pratt, a former high school athlete who recklessly killed two of his friends and injured his girlfriend in an easily avoidable car accident.
Chris meets Gary Spargo (Matthew Goode), a former schoolmate who manipulates Chris into being the crucial element of a bank heist at the same bank Chris works for as a janitor.Levitt, who recently stunned us with his work in Mysterious Skin and Brick, is subtle and extremely convincing while playing a very complex, difficult character, and Jeff Daniels steals the majority of his scenes as Chris's blind roommate, creating great comic relief.
On prom night, local hockey star Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) sees his life change in a split second; several years later, he is living with a head injury that's knocked out his short-term memory (he jots down pertinent details on a notepad) and spends his nights cleaning up a lonely Kansas bank; he rooms with the blind Lewis (an excellent Jeff Daniels), who aspires to open a restaurant with Chris; and is accosted by Gary (Matthew Goode), an ingratiating asthmatic who coaxes Chris into helping rob the bank.
It was quite good but I guess in the end there are too many American heist-movies.The movie is all about a character named Chris Pratt played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Jeff Daniels was the only actor able to put some weight into his role as Chris's blind roommate Lewis, the only 'real' character in this movie.
The Lookout tells the story of an ex hockey athlete (Joseph Gordon- Levitt) who had a great life leading up until a tragic accident in which him, his girlfriend (at the time) and a couple of friends crashed into a combined on the side of the road.
Still I got to recommend the film because it has great acting , and the movie overall was well polished.(Spoilers) Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Chris Pratt who was out cruising with his friends.
Chris takes notes and his writings are like those of a 2nd grader.The one good thing about this film is the performance by his blind friend, well played by Jeff Daniels.
The story doesn't need them.The movie is carried along largely off the strength of acting of both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jeff Daniels.