‘The 25th Hour’ tells timely tale with a twist

In theaters

THE 25TH HOUR. Directed by Spike Lee, written by David Benioff, based on his novel, 132 minutes, rated R. Now playing, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

The new Spike Lee movie, “The 25th Hour,” follows the life and hard times of Monty Brogan (Edward Norton), a troubled, 31-year-old man saying his goodbyes to those close to him the day before he leaves for a long stint in the big house.

There, thanks to a drug charge, he’ll spend the next seven years regretting his past, questioning his future and, perhaps most of all, wishing he weren’t so slight of build or, for that matter, so easy on the eyes.

Based on screenwriter David Benioff’s book, this is Lee’s 14th movie and it’s terrific, the first film to use the terrorist attacks on New York City as a backdrop and, in the end, as a metaphor.

Indeed, if “The 25th Hour” is about the transitions taking place in Monty’s life, then it’s also just as much about a city in transition.

Loose but not structureless, the film weaves in and out of Monty’s relationships, flashing back and forward through time as time itself closes in.

It introduces us to Monty’s Irish father, James (Brian Cox), who used his son’s drug money to free himself of debt; his beautiful girlfriend, Naturelle (Rosario Dawson), who knew, but never questioned, how Monty could afford to treat her so well; and his two childhood friends Frank (Barry Pepper) and Jacob (Philip Seymour Hoffman), neither of whom interfered with Monty’s drug running, not even when he was pushing heroin to children in neighborhood playgrounds.

As with so many of Lee’s films, “The 25th Hour” joins the rest in thumbing its nose at Hollywood gloss.

At its core, it’s about responsibility – responsibility to ourselves and responsibility for others. If it lacks the engine of a formal plot, it moves briskly thanks to the underlying mystery that somebody here may have turned Monty in to the police.

That mystery drives the film, but so does Monty’s barely contained rage, which gives the movie its brooding undercurrent, all of which comes to a boiling point when he launches into an unforgettable rant about everything he hates about New York City, including himself.

We’ve seen this before in Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” but this time out, with the city still pulling itself together, there’s an uncomfortable rawness only matched when Monty’s father drives him to prison.

Here, in a brilliant voice-over by Cox, what Monty’s life could become if he were to run from the law today, steal away into another part of the country and start life anew, romantically is laid out for him. “Give me the word and we’ll take a left turn,” his father says. “Give me the word and we’ll go. We’ll drive – we’ll keep driving, taking that road as far as it will take us. And then I’ll go.”

But will Monty go? Rising to the top of his powers as a director, Lee offers a final twist as Monty is faced with whether he at long last will do the right thing.

Grade: A

On video and DVD

WHITE OLEANDER. Directed by Peter Kosminsky, written by Mary Agnes Donoghue, 110 minutes, rated PG-13.

Peter Kosminsky’s “White Oleander,” a mother-daughter soap opera based on Janet Fitch’s Oprah-fueled best seller, is a melodramatic potboiler, for sure, but it’s a harrowing, extremely well-acted potboiler, a movie about the ramifications of emotional abuse that resonates with moments of truth as it follows one girl’s descent into hell.

The film stars Michelle Pfeiffer as Ingrid, an artist-cum-poisonous sociopath whose physical beauty belies a cruel spirit and an ugly heart, and Alison Lohman as her teenage daughter Astrid, a budding artist whose mother happens to be Mommie Dearest for the new millennium.

For Astrid, life strikes a sour note and sustains it when the unstable Ingrid murders her inattentive boyfriend, Barry (Billy Connolly), and is sent to prison. Over the next several years, Astrid is bounced between foster homes and foster mothers while Ingrid maintains a fierce emotional grip because she’s either unwilling or unable to let go.

With Pfeiffer perfect as the conniving Ingrid; Robin Wright Penn as the sluttish, born-again Christian, Starr; Renee Zellweger as a third-rate actress with a neglectful husband (Noah Wylie); and Svetlana Efremova as a Russian temptress with a hive of other foster girls, the standout here is Lohman, who grounds the movie even as its seams threaten to burst.

As the film opens, Astrid states that she doesn’t “know how to express how being with someone so dangerous was the last time I felt safe.” As the film ends, Kosminsky allows her to express those feelings in a way that suggests even the most unwanted of maternal ties run deep.

Grade: B+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, Tuesdays and Thursdays WLBZ 2 and WCSH 6, and are archived on RottenTomatoes.com. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.