Movies From the Hat IV #12 – Markus’ Pick – 25th Hour (2002)

This is my 2471st Review

Thanks to Markus of The Marko Guy for this recommendation.

Here are his thoughts on the film.
“Champagne for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends.” – Monty

Number of Times Seen – 2 (22 Apr 2008 and 1 Sep 2016)

Brief Synopsis – A convicted drug dealer reflex on his life in the last day before he enters a 7 year prison sentence.

My Take on it – I saw this movie years ago and it didn’t make much of an impression on me.

Upon second viewing tho, my thoughts on it are now completely the opposite.

I really liked the way that they use prison as an analogy for death because what is a better way to have someone reflect on their life knowing that things as they currently stand are about to end.

WE understand why the main character does what he does during his final 24 hours and it all makes a lot of sense.

The cast which is led by Edward Norton is great; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Anna Paquin, Rosario Dawson and Brian Cox are all great as Norton’s friends and family.

I liked the way that they make almost all of the characters likeable despite the fact that we know that they aren’t really perfect angels.

There is a scene that is almost perfect that is narrated by Cox that is done perfectly and leaves so much to the imagination that it keeps things quite ambiguous as to what is really happening.

This film was made not long after 9/11 ad I really enjoyed the subtle references to that event because New York CITY is a major character in this film.

The events of 9/11 were quite fresh in people’s minds at the time and it was quite clever to do things subtly.

Bottom Line – Interesting look at a man who thought he had it all and now needs to look back and figure out what is most important in life.  Going to prison is a good analogy for death and they show us what someone knowing it’s his last day would do.  Great cast led by Norton.  They do a wonderful job of making the characters very likeable despite knowing much about the way they live their lives. Really liked how they subtly referred to 9/11 being that it was all so fresh in everyone’s mind at the time this came out. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – David Benioff, who wrote the original novel is one of the two creators of the Game of Thrones series on HBO. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy

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