The Lookout: Critic Reviews

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as a fellow who has suffered serious head trauma, comes up with such a moody Method assemblage of twitches, tics, and guilty Memento mannerisms that he's not much fun to watch.

Most impressive of all is Mr. Gordon-Levitt, who is convincing as one of cinema's most difficult archetypes: the reactive protagonist whose complex emotions are visible to the viewer but invisible to his fellow characters.

A cracking armed-robbery thriller.

The movie is sometimes deliberately paced, then intensifies at unlikely moments, artfully blending pulse-stopping, nerve-jangling suspense with sharp dialogue and nuanced portrayals.

The dour, downbeat story eventually spirals into grisly Grand Guignol and contrivance.

A modestly effective thriller about a lost boy who falls in with a nasty pack of bank robbers, The Lookout promises minor pleasures and delivers them.

Gordon-Levitt's worth the admission all by his lonesome. He's that good - the proverbial young man with an old soul who brings unexpected depth, complexity, and sincerity to what could have been just another damaged-guy role. He's the one to look out for.

Though The Lookout is eventually a genre film, with a tense, bang-up ending, it is also a thoughtful study of a young man trying to make sense of a world that he is having to learn all over again.

A straight-ahead drama, perfectly accessible though psychologically intricate, coupled shrewdly to a crime thriller.

A solid debut. [Writer-director Scott] Frank never overpowers this at-times familiar material. Aiming for a film that's character-driven, he gets sharp performances that hold promise for the nascent director.

Frank's writing is razor-sharp, his filmmaking whistle-clean.

From that opening sequence to an ending that's satisfying without being overly sentimental, The Lookout is utterly engrossing. I loved this movie.

Small but satisfying, and you're pleased to find yourself in the company of a writer who knows what he's doing, doesn't showboat yet doesn't turn to stone, and plays straight into the tangy strengths of his script.

Sleekly tooled but eminently forgettable.

A fine, slow-building affair.

Cinematographer Alar Kivilo supplies a mundane winter-gray look that underscores the story's chilling tone. The Lookout begs to be seen by anyone who enjoys falling under the spell of a good thriller.

An entertaining heist flick with some real emotional heft at its center and a series of plot curves that mix the unique and familiar. The Lookout is a must-see.

A stealthy neo-noir drama that isn't afraid to take its time developing characters on the way to the payoff of a neatly designed caper scenario.

Instead of a funny heist flick or a comedy with thrills, [writer Scott Frank] sketches out a gentle sine wave of a movie. It oscillates from not very funny to not very thrilling without ever being in a hurry to get where it's going.

This is Scott Frank's first feature as a director, and it speaks of more good things to come.

A sure-footed, restrained picture, in which the characters are allowed to drive the action -- not the other way around.

Fueled by yet another terrific performance from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, it's a curiously satisfying genre picture, with all the tight plotting and meticulous character building you'd expect from the writer of Out of Sight.

I left the theater entertained but not fully satisfied.

Out of Sight scribes slides nicely into director's chair with darker crime tale.