Entertainment, Movies - Air Force Times

It’s the characters that thrill in subtle ‘Lookout’

So a brain-damaged janitor, a blind man, a former stripper with the exquisite “nom de pole” of Luvlee Lemons and a gang of desperados walk into a bank …

The setup for a terrible joke? Hardly. Those are the ingredients that writer-director Scott Frank plops in a skillet and simmers to savory effect in “The Lookout,” which could be the sleeper of this year’s spring movie season.

Frank makes a surehanded directorial debut after a highly successful run as a writer — including scripts for the film versions of Elmore Leonard’s novels “Get Shorty” and “Out of Sight,” for which he got an Oscar nomination.

With an uncluttered style no doubt absorbed at the elbow of directors on the films whose scripts he penned, he uses uniformly fine performances from a talented and diverse cast to craft an absorbing tale of regrets, guilt, choices and how we decide who we really are.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is superb in the headliner role of Chris Pratt, a former high school star athlete from a rich family who was brain-damaged in a horrific car wreck four years ago.

He’s still functional, but the world falls out of sync for him at frequent intervals. He has big problems with sequencing, needs to constantly scribble reminders to himself about mundane tasks and keeps a spare car key in his shoe because he’s forever locking his main set in his car.

Limited to a job as a night janitor at a small bank, he spends much of his time drifting like human fog. He’s treated like an addled puppy by most of his family and with barely concealed disappointment by his overbearing dad (Bruce McGill).

His only friend is his acerbic roomie, Lewis (a terrific Jeff Daniels), who blinded himself years before while cooking meth.

Chris wants his old life back. And if he can’t have that, he’d settle for a life. But his condition keeps getting in the way, particularly in dealing with women — which, given his age, is quite a concern.

The problem there is that one symptom of his head injury is a lack of the normal social inhibitors most of us have. So when his attractive case worker (Carla Gugino) asks him if he’s tried to form relationships with any women lately, he says he already has one — with her.

“I think about [bleeping] you all the time,” he blurts, instantly aware and deeply ashamed of his gross impropriety.

The movie spends a long time establishing these confines of Chris’ life. The payoff for this deliberate character portraiture is that when the plot kicks into gear, we’re hyperinvested in Chris, Lewis and whatever is to befall them.

At the center of that plot is Gary Spargo (Matthew Goode), who runs into Chris at a bar and introduces himself as an old schoolmate. Gary slowly draws Chris into his little circle of pals, then drops the bomb: They want to rob Chris’ bank.

Chris initially recoils, but Gary spins a shimmering fantasy about reclaiming his life. “Whoever has the money, has the power,” he croons. As a bonus, he offers sexy Ms. Lemons (Isla Fisher of “Wedding Crashers”), and when even that proves insufficient, he resorts to brute force.

To say a single word more about how it plays out would spoil things. But this is far from a routine bank-heist caper. Subtle and not-so-subtle surprises pop up along the way, bolstered by a cast that shines even in the small parts (wait until you get a load of Greg Dunham as Bone, Gary’s spooky, taciturn henchman).

Gordon-Levitt is particularly engrossing in his portrayal of an achingly frustrated young man for whom a “normal” life remains maddeningly just out of reach. Hard to believe his first acting splash was the goofy sitcom “3rd Rock From the Sun.”

“The Lookout” is a gripping reminder that while big-budget, sensory-overload, special-effects blockbusters can be great fun, it’s character-driven flicks like this that stick with you long after you depart the octoplex.

3 ½ stars. Rated R for violence, language and brief nudity. Opens March 30.