The Lookout (2007)

Why isn't this at the top of the box office? Seriously, if there ever was an independent-esque film that needed to be marketed like a mainstream blockbuster, it is this one.

Its a funny, sexy, intensely satisfying bank robbery drama about a handicapped young man (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brick) reclaiming his life with the help of a blind man (Jeff Daniels, The Squid and the Whale). Gordon-Levitt? Daniels? What's not to like?

Scott Frank, the screenwriter who penned such classics as Get Shorty, Out of Sight, and Minority Report, gives us a wonderful screenplay that doesn't resort to the ultimate of cliches in regards to bank robbery movies: there is no twist ending. Adam Kempenaar of the Filmspotting Podcast said he "kept expecting with this crime movie there to be some big twist reveal at the end." I was as well. And if anything, Frank's straight forward approach is a twist ending in and of itself because of our expectations.

It is a wonderful film with some excellent dialogues between Gordon-Levitt and Daniels that "you just have fun listening to" (Kempenaar). It was fun. And I plan on watching it again on DVD.

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