The Lookout

You can now add this to the list of classic bank robbery movies like Heist, Dog Day Afternoon, and Inside Man. Debuting director and award-winning writer Scott Frank (Out of Sight) unlocks the combination for a highly suspenseful and terrific entertainment. The Lookout is a truly outstanding crime drama that is as vivid and engrossing as any that has come along in years. At its heart is the title character, a former star high school hockey player (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, one of today's most promising young actors) whose life comes crashing down around him after a tragic auto accident. Years later, he tries to regain some semblance of an existence by taking a job as the janitor at a small-town bank in Kansas. The simplicity of the job seems well suited to his impairment, but it isn't long before complications set in when a gang of thieves enlists him in their plan to rob the place. Although that act becomes the focus for the film's final act, The Lookout really is basically a strong character study of a kid whose entire life becomes a struggle for rehabilitation, the result of one reckless moment. Through his taut direction and script, Frank allows us to empathize with this depressed young man who takes another wrong turn just as he is trying to walk back into the light. A top supporting cast, led by Jeff Daniels, Matthew Goode, and Isla Fisher, adds much, but it's onetime sitcom star Gordon-Levitt who is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with. Lookout for him and this fine film.