The Lookout - DVD Review

Largely ignored (except by us) on its theatrical release, Scott Frank’s intimate, involving little noir sees the Out Of Sight scribe slip from key-to-clapperboard seamlessly, delivering a directorial debut that demands to be discovered on DVD. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is predictably excellent as a memory-mushed car-crash victim hoodwinked into a heist, but it’s Brit-boy Matthew Goode who astounds, as the charismatic crim cruelly exploiting the one-time high school hero. Frank is – sorry about this – frank about his flaws in the extras, admitting to lingering on overly elaborate shots and not leaving enough time to shoot the action. Interesting, too, to note that he spent months honing the script with David Fincher – who dropped out only when the studio wouldn’t shill to make it an $8om DiCaprio thriller. Still, it says something about Frank’s first-time chops that this tale of memory, grief and second chances still richly deserves to be dug out of the past.