25TH HOUR

"Champaigne for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends."

Fuck you.

This could be the single best scene of the 21st century so far. It's certainly the best from 25TH HOUR, a very hit-and-miss 'joint' from Spike Lee. It's a five-minute scene in which Monty Brogan (a solid Edward Norton, as always) rants about the things the have made his heart black throughout his life, in front of the mirror. Monty is about to go to jail for seven years for dealing drugs, and he is afraid. He is not afraid of missing seven years of his life and possibly losing all emotional connections with his girlfriend Naturelle (Rosario Dawson), his father (Brian Cox), and his two best friends (Barry Pepper and Philip Seymour Hoffman). In the rant he vents about everything that has affected the choices that have made him end up face life in a cell. The last line of the rant, though, sees Monty face the reality of his situation:

No. No, fuck you, Montgomery Brogan. You had it all, and you threw it away, you dumb fuck!

25TH HOUR is a film of great emotion and at the same time great restraint. It is Monty's last day in the real world, and he wants it to be the best of his life. He and the people around him try not to think of what the future will hold for all of them, but they can not help it. None of their lives have turned out as planned. Monty's mother died, and his father became a drunk (though sobered up). This has affected his father more than Monty, but Monty regrets the decisions he made during his adolesence that saw him be kicked out of school and into the Russian drug ring of New York. Jacob Elinsky (Hoffman) now teaches at the school, and hates himself for having a rich inheritance, as well as being attracted to one of his students (Anna Paquin). Francis Slaughtery (Pepper) regrets not trying to intervene in Norton's actions, and knows he could have made a difference. Naturelle wonders about her and Monty's future.

The conclusion of 25TH HOUR is a very interesting one. As the emotions of all the characters meet a melting point, it seems fitting that there would be a resolution. It doesn't, though. The film is about a middle passage of Monty's life, so it doesn't exactly end. It features one of the great monologues of recent memory as Monty's father thinks about what his son can still do with his life in last day. That makes the true final scene of the film all the more crushing. 25TH HOUR is a film about how the choices we make affect who we are, and it is a film of great emotional power.

A-