I don’t know exactly where things go wrong in The Lookout, I only know that they do go wrong. Very wrong. And no matter what your other reviewer friends are telling you I’d council you to leave this one alone.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the kid from Third Rock from the Sun, stars as Chris Pratt. Pratt used to have it all (back in the day) until a tragic accident took everything from him. Pratt struggles to function, barely scraping by, with the help of his blind friend Lewis (Jeff Daniels). The accident has left Pratt without his memory or sense; and he’s perfect fodder for a scam. Enter Matthew Goode who shows nice range given the pretty boy he played in Match Point. The rest of the movie unfolds in typical thriller mode, twists and turns and so on, until it plays out pretty much exactly as you would have guessed if you’d watched the first ten minutes with anything resembling sobriety.
Now then, the problems with The Lookout. First off, Isla Fisher doesn’t show any skin. I’ve have a few people ask that (degenerates) so I figured I’d inform on that front. Also, there is a giant edit with Fisher’s character, like a mind blowing vortex wherein you look around the theater to see if anyone else noticed what just happened. It’s like watching blue screen CGI of a man running from a Dino and then the London Bridge pops up behind him. Jarring stuff and I wonder how those 18 positive reviews over there on RottenTomatoes didn’t catch it. Perhaps they were still hopeful for Isla action.
The plot is also fairly worthless. You get to watch a disabled kid get picked on. You want to jump in but what good would it do? The kid will still be screwed up tomorrow. Yet I’m supposed to cheer for him as he heads down the inevitable screwjob path? Not me, pal. I was actually cheering against him a little bit. At least the other guy had a plan and a suitably silly catchphrase. “Whoever has the money has the power.” Let that marinate for a bit. I would have said “Whoever has a gun at a knife fight has the power,” but I don’t get to write catchphrases. Just reviews.
What good can be culled out of this cheese curd? Well, I like Jeff Daniels, just in general. I thought he was good here too. He seemed pretty blind to me. The opening song I liked as well, but it had no lyrics attached to it so I’m probably doomed to wander the Earth without ever knowing what it was. There’s a little bit of violence which speeds the pace a bit, and it’s only 99 minutes. But that’s about it. Lookout for The Lookout so it doesn’t steal your eight bucks.
