'25th Hour' is thoughtful and engaging

25th Hour

Director: Spike Lee

Cast: Edward Norton, Barry Pepper, Brian Cox, Anna Paquin, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Cert: 18.

One of the most inventive of Hollywood directors, even if he does always get it right, returns to top form with this fine and powerful drama.

Lee can be a frustrating moviemaker, often too strident in the conveying of his 'messages', but here he reels himself in and, backed by a cast of extreme and edgy talent (Norton is positively brilliant), comes up with a film that is thoughtful and engaging and full of goodness.

The story concerns one, Monty Brogan (Norton), an Irish-American drug-dealer who faces his last 24 hours of freedom before starting a jail sentence. We follow Brogan around New York as he tries to come to terms with the events and people who brought him here, to attempt reconciliations, to seek revenge, to understand what life is supposed to be about.

In this Norton is at the peak of his performing powers, but so too are Pepper and Cox and everybody else, all playing characters met by Brogan during his last hours of freedom.

It is a telling tale of coming to terms, of self-discovery, and it is one of Lee's most compelling films.

Star Rating: 5/5