The Lookout

Acclaimed screenwriter Scott Frank (Out Of Sight and Get Shorty) makes a mind-blowing directorial debut in The Lookout, a gritty, high-tension crime thriller starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (TV’s Third Rock From The Sun, Brick), Jeff Daniels (RV) and Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers). Chris "Slapshot" Pratt (Gordon-Levitt), whose once-bright future has been dimmed by a severe head injury, is a night janitor at a bank. Lonely and frustrated, Chris falls prey to a con man’s seductive promise of romance and a better life, and agrees to help rob the bank where he works. Filled with heart-pounding action, edge-of-your-seat suspense and a twist you’ll never see coming, The Lookout will grip you and never let go.

An unpredictable thriller, The Lookout stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Brick, Mysterious Skin) as Chris, a young man who had everything ahead of him--until a car accident killed two of his friends and left him with brain damage. Now reduced to being a janitor at a bank, Chris struggles to maintain some semblance of order in his life. When a guy he meets at a bar turns out to be an old classmate, Chris succumbs to his flattery, not suspecting that the guy's intentions are criminal. The Lookout was probably sold as Memento meets Inside Man, but its rewards are more modest than either. Though the plot is never obvious, the characters are never surprising--and in this kind of thriller, the payoff is when characters exceed what they (and the audience) believe they are. Still, the writing, acting, and directing are all solid, and from moment to moment the movie proves compelling. Jeff Daniels (The Purple Rose of Cairo) is particularly good as Chris's blind roommate, who smells a rat but can't persuade Chris to do something about it. --Bret Fetzer