25th Hour

4/4 stars

I'm the type of viewer who can be quite satisfied with a movie that has little more by way of action than interesting conversation. For the first hour or so of 25th Hour, it is that kind of film, patient and meditative, establishing characters through conversations that are snappy and intelligent, but also flavorfully coarse. The vulgarity adds to the urgency already underpinning these scenes, because tomorrow the main character goes to prison. These characters have an edge, they are neither a stand in for the audience nor the writer, but solid, grounded individuals who seem to live in the same world that we do. In the second half of the film, the dimensions of these characters are tested, they are pushed to make difficult choices. They reveal their flaws, and crack in the places that are weak.

The acting in this film is extraordinary. Edward Norton plays the condemned man with an air of forced calm and an always clear impression of the rage and despair beneath it. He always seems about to boil over, and begins to on one or two occasions, but there is such reserve even in these moments as to suggest much more still contained. Rosario Dawson walks a fine line in her performance. She plays a character who may not be trustworthy, but does so with an intense and compelling honesty nonetheless. Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays a man who willingly suffers for his principals, but is unsure of what the world expects of him. His sacrifices as a teacher go unappreciated, and he is tempted to allow himself one particular indiscretion to compensate for this. Anna Paquin is that temptation, a student, and she also has a delicate balance to keep. Though she is seductive, the vulnerability of her performance conveys the unsung truth of the situation: the damage that would be done to the teacher should their romance come to fruition is secondary to the damage that would be done to her. Finally, there's Brian Cox as Norton's father, who only seems underused until he tips his hand in the film's final act.

The events of this film threaten to overwhelm its characters, but without seeming unrealistic or squelching the smaller nuances that make them unique. Like anything by Spike Lee, the film is contemporary and somewhat political, but not in a way that overshadows its humanity. The presence of New York City is essential to the movie, it informs it visually, culturally and politically. The look of the movie is gorgeous and clean, particularly as it serves to illustrate two extended sequences that bookend the film. They are monologues of explosive and emotional poetry, delivered by Norton and Cox that shape the way we come to the film, and our impression as we leave it. 25th Hour is a movie that is compelling both in terms of drama and filmmaking, and is among the best efforts of everyone involved.