collected writings

25th hour

Monty Brogan is a nice guy.

He rescues a dog that has been beaten almost to death.   He is introspective, conversational.   He gives his father money to pay off his father's business debts.   Monty Brogan is a nice guy... who just happens to make a living selling cocaine, and in 24 hours he is going to jail for seven years.

Suddenly, all the things he has been meaning to do become distant, unreachable.   He divides up his remaining time by saying thanks and goodbye to the only important people in his life:   his father, his girlfriend, his two best friends.

Edward Norton plays Monty as a gambler who stayed in the game one hand too long, and now deeply regrets his greed.   His two friends, given voice by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Barry Pepper, sadly lay bare his options:   suicide, flight, or jail.   Regardless, his life is over, his future changed permanently by his past.   Monty's family and friends know this, just as they knew the source of his generous and expensive gifts, but they support him throughout his last day.

Director Spike Lee puts his reputable energy into this film, showing us just how frightening the unknown future can be; 25 th Hour is not about the future, it's about the present suddenly coming to a halt.   Here, the film takes a step beyond the question, "what would you do if you had 24 hours to live?"

Based on the novel by David Benioff (who also wrote the screenplay), Lee works with the material, creating in Monty grappling to deal with his present a metaphor for post-Sept. 11 th New York City.   Thus, 25 th Hour functions as a eulogy for the United States, the way-she-used-to-be, facing a suddenly unsure future.

Monty's father (Brian Cox), a retired firefighter, runs a bar patronized by local, shell-shocked firemen.   Pepper's character rents an apartment that overlooks the World Trade Center devastation; he is willing to endure the surrounding stench of death because the price is right.   All the characters, Monty in particular, are willing to participate in the suffering and deaths of others because they do not want to change they way they live.   We are forced to question our behavior, as individuals and as a nation.

Rosario Dawson, in what could be considered a breakthrough role, plays Naturelle Rivera, Monty's girlfriend.   She may or may not have turned him into the police, and this ambiguity, as well as the ambiguity regarding her complete faithfulness to Monty, surrounds the relationship.   However, Monty is lucky with this relationship, and as his freedom grows short the need to place blame diminishes.