Review #675: '25th Hour' (2002)

In the year following the 9/11 attacks on New York and America, film-makers and producers were still tip-toeing around the subject, even going as far as digitally removing the World Trade Centre from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trailer. Never one to shy away from confronting a controversial subject head-on, director Spike Lee made 25th Hour, a story of young Irish-American drug dealer Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) celebrating his last day of freedom before he gets banged up for 7 years. Brogan serves as a metaphor for the post-9/11 America - unsure, paranoid, angry, disillusioned. In the first scene, we see him younger, happier, and saving a dying dog with his Russian friend Kostya (Tony Siragusa), but this was before he got busted, and, presumably, before 9/11.

Lee is hardly subtle about his allegories, and the opening credits are shown over images of the beams of light shooting up in the air at Ground Zero, representing the fallen towers of the World Trade Centre. In another scene, Monty's two best friends Jacob (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Frank (Barry Pepper) discuss Monty's future once he gets out of prison. Frank's apartment overlooks Ground Zero, and Frank explains how nothing can ever be the same, both for their relationship with Monty, and for America. The presence of Ground Zero looms like some unshakeable ghost, almost serving as a character itself. Jacob and Frank's lives are hitting a sort-of midlife crisis also. Jacob is channelling his "liberal guilt" into sexually obsessing over a young student of his (Anna Paquin) and Jacob's Red Bull and stock market-fuelled existence is reaching breaking point.

Of course, this being a Spike Lee 'joint' (how I wish he'd stop calling them that), the subject of race is never far away, and Lee confronts this in a standout scene that comes out of nowhere. Monty, after a dinner with his guilt-ridden father (Brian Cox), goes into the bathroom of his father's bar for his reflection to launch into a rant about his hatred for the many ethnic groups that reside in New York. "Fuck the Sikhs and Pakistanis bombing down the avenues in their decrepit cabs, fuck the Korean grocers, fuck the Russians and the Chassidim," he shouts. He also fucks the church, the Wall Street bankers and rich trophy wives. This is a man focusing his anger at anybody, and much like Lee's masterpiece Do the Right Thing (1989), the film manages to capture what many were feeling at the time.

All allegories aside, 25th Hour holds it's own as a drama. There's no twist and turns or gunfights, and the only real tension comes from people's suspicions of Monty's girlfriend Naturelle (Rosario Dawson) being possibly the one who fingered Monty. But there's no need for it, as Lee's aim here is to create something all the more sombre and reflective. The cast are superb, especially Norton and Pepper, the latter proving that his talents have gone unrecognised for far too long with a performance of self-destructive narcissism. The social messages can be heavy-handed at times, and it goes on for far too long, but the ending provides an outstanding fantasy prologue of blind optimism. One of the most honest depictions of America ever made.


Directed by: Spike Lee
Starring: Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Rosario Dawson, Anna Paquin, Brian Cox
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie