25th Hour Movie Review 2002

Moody, atmospheric character study follows the last 24 hours of freedom for convicted drug dealer Monty Brogan (Norton) before he begins a seven-year sentence. Brogan says his goodbyes to his father, a retired firefighter who now runs a bar paid for with Monty's drug money; his longtime buddies Frank (Pepper), a Wall Street shark, and Jacob (Hoffman), a high school teacher with low self-esteem and a crush on one of his students (Paquin); and girlfriend Naturelle (Dawson), whom he suspects of turning him in. All feel different levels of guilt over letting Monty become involved in "the life." If Lee had stuck to these stories, it would've worked much better, but instead he lays the spectre of 9/11 over the proceedings, creating jarring scenes that sometimes work, but mostly distract from some impressive performances.

Distribution

Buena Vista Home Entertainment, 500 S. Buena Vista St., Burbank, CA 91521-1120, Toll-free: 800-723-4763, URL: http://www.bvhe.com

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 132 minutes.
Originally from United States.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Buddies, A Day in the Life. . ., Up All Night, Dads, Betrayal, Smuggler's Blues, New York, New York

Screenplay

David Benioff

Cast

Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Rosario Dawson, Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, Isiah Whitlock, Michael Genet, Tony Siragusa, Levani Outchanechvili, Misha Kuznetsov

Cinematography

Rodrigo Prieto

Director

Spike Lee

Music

Terence Blanchard

Other

Rolf Pardula, Barry Alexander Brown, Nicholas Lundy, Sandra Hernandez, James Chinlund

Producer

Spike Lee, Jon Kilik, Julia Chasman, Tobey Maguire, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, Industry Entertainment, Gamut Films, Touchstone Pictures

Awards

Golden Globes 2003: Score.