25th Hour (2003) * * *

Directed by:  Spike Lee

Starring:  Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Rosario Dawson, Tony Siragusa, Brian Cox, Anna Paquin

25th Hour details the last hours of freedom for Monty Brogan (Norton), a drug dealer who begins his seven-year prison sentence tomorrow and spends his last free hours setting things right with his friends, loved ones, and even enemies.    He has thought about how he arrived here, and how he should've gotten out while the getting was good, before DEA agents searched his house and found kilos of cocaine and stashed cash in his sofa cushions.    He is kicking himself for not having the money laundered or for trusting too many people with his secrets.    The rest of the people in his life will go on with their lives after tomorrow.    Monty will have to deal with survival in prison for seven long years.    He knows as we do that he brought this on himself, not that it helps much. 

In Spike Lee's thoughtful, contemplative film, we first meet Monty sitting on a park bench next to his dog Doyle.    A strung-out junkie approaches him looking for a fix.   Monty coldly tells him he is no longer in that business.     He isn't anymore, but in a way he always will be in that business.    Every day in prison will remind him of this.    Monty lives in the same posh apartment with his girlfriend Naturelle (Dawson) in which he hid his drugs.    We see in flashbacks how his relationship with Naturelle started and how his life slowly and inevitably crashed.    Naturelle senses Monty's distance from her.    Is he preoccupied with his fate or does he think she turned him in to the feds?    A mutual friend, Kostoya (Siragusa- yes the football player), plants seeds of doubt in Monty's head about Naturelle's loyalty.  

Monty's day will continue with a visit to his father at his bar and then a final get together with his longtime buddies Frank (Pepper), a hotshot stockbroker, and Jake (Hoffman), a rich kid schoolteacher who has fantasies about 17-year-old student Mary (Paquin), who clearly likes him.    Frank and Jake are saddled with their own guilt about Monty.    Frank thinks he should've at least warned Monty once about the dangers of his lifestyle.    Jake knows he can't act on his feelings towards Mary, but a coincidental meeting outside the club where he is meeting Monty only muddies the waters.

What is spoken once by Frank to Jake (but not to Monty) is how tonight will be the end of Monty as they know him.    Or more to the point, their relationship with him.    Frank promises to be there when Monty is released from prison seven years from now, but a lot can happen in seven years.    Whether Monty runs away, kills himself, or goes to prison, the Monty they knew will be gone forever.    Among Monty's myriad thoughts, I am sure this occurred to him too, even if he doesn't say it out loud.

25th Hour is sobering, but perceptive about its characters and their inner conflicts.   Yet, it is not a downer, mostly because Lee directs with energy and style, although sometimes a bit too heavy on the style.    The score sometimes is either too loud and drowns out the dialogue, or it too blatantly underlines important points.    And a Spike Lee movie wouldn't be a Spike Lee movie without the character who appears to be floating above the fray.    There is also that awkward allusion to Do The Right Thing in which Monty looks at himself in the mirror and curses out every ethnic group, race, neighborhood, and class in New York.    My understanding is that such a passage is in the book on which the film is based, but it comes off as too much of a distracting nod to Lee's earlier films.

Regardless, Lee's film is at its best when it taps into the universal feelings of regret, loss, and guilt.    It is human nature to curse ourselves when we turned right instead of left, or did something terribly stupid which seemed reasonable at the moment.     I recently reviewed American History X (also starring Norton), and in both films we see a strong, centered Norton performance in which he is fully aware of the consequences of his actions.   Norton is controlled, attempting to be dispassionate, but we know the thoughts that are churning away in his brain and eating at his soul.     But, this is not just Norton's film.    Pepper, Dawson, and Hoffman also give stellar supporting performances with their own painful conflicts.     And Brian Cox (as Monty's dad) has a remarkable final speech to his son as he is driving him to the prison gates.    Maybe, just maybe, they can make a turn and head west never to be heard from again.    Does this become a reality or is it simply a fond wish for both men who know what is ahead?    We aren't entirely sure, and Lee leaves us with a semblance of hope in a story which we thought was exclusively hopeless.