25th Hour
Montgomery Brogan (Edward Norton) approaches an interesting turn in the road of his life. When the next day rolls around, he will be in a prison after being caught dealing drugs. He decides to make the most of it by spending time with his dad (Brian Cox), his two best friends (Barry Pepper and Philip Seymour Hoffman), and his girlfriend Naturelle (Rosario Dawson). As day turns into night, Monty is forced to study what his life has become and soon questions these people and others in their role in bringing him down as well as where their loyalties lie. Lingering in the background is the fact that this is a post-9/11 story, with the subtle reminders of Ground Zero and fallen firefighters sprinkled into the film. It only proves that even with all the bad that has happened, both in New York and in Monty's life, both will struggle to get out of it and both will be stronger because of it.

Director Spike Lee, himself a New Yorker, brings a painful sense of reality and honesty to this film, as he does with almost every film he does. There is a very strong scene where Norton begins to shout expletives at himself in a mirror, blaming almost everybody for what was wrong in New York and the world. It's also found in the book the movie it's based on by David Benioff. But Lee's films are notable by that one scene everyone talks about for years to come. I was watching Do the Right Thing on Bravo again the other night which had its ending of the fight between blacks and Italians and the subsequent fire at the pizza place. 25th Hour doesn't have its one memorable scene and instead tries to use 9/11 as its memorable aspect, even though it serves as more of a distraction rather than a rallying cry. It's not strong enough though to deter us from watching Monty go from a man willing to accept his fate to a man deconstructed before our very eyes. 3 stars

Two side questions: Tobey Maguire really produced this flick? And Lee couldn't find someone with a better accent than Tony Siragusa's?