25th Hour

coverReferring sporadically to 9/11, New Yorker Spike Lee presents a small, compact story about an unlucky marijuana dealer's last day of freedom, before being put away for seven years.
Montgomery (Edward Norton) goes clubbing with two old friends, who are faithful but estranged from him and each other. He's presented with a gun and the man who betrayed him, but we don't see whether he shoots. The final scene, in which Montgomery's dad paints him an escapee's life in some desert town, is the most poignant.
Tragic, to the point, simple and never preachy: more movies should be like this.

Posted by cronopio at 02:07 AM, January 30, 2003