25th Hour
There is a reason why I am only posting about 25th Hour now – I think the last time I was so overwhelmed by a film was Donnie Darko (but of course 25h Hour is nothing like Donnie Darko). So it took me a little bit more than one year to stumble upon a film that fascinates me so much again.
Consequently, I have pushed back writing about it until now because I find myself unable to find a beginning. I have just eaten something to be able to concentrate a bit better (actually I haven’t eaten anything before today ^^;), but I fail.
Oh, and now that I am looking at my own blog post about Donnie Darko, it dawn on me that it’s probably impossible to write about the best XD (Also I would always, always be insatisfied with my post ^^;)
First of all, I am really glad that Edward Norton took the role and not Tobey Maguire. (You all know that I’m the biggest Edward Norton fangirl in the world so no need to comment any further, I guess. XD)
Unlike Donnie Darko, 25th Hour does not really ‘look’ good in any ways; there also is no strong mysterious atmosphere whatsoever. However, there is some atmosphere, but I can’t describe it because I was so sucked into the film that I was unable to think. I lost ground under my feet so much that every time Prog has commented something, his voice sounded so far away and unreal and I felt like I was violently dragged into reality again. It sounds quite creepy and I believe that was the same for Donnie Darko back then – only that nobody ‘disturbed’ me.
When something appears on my favourites, it’s most likely something serious and handling my favourite topic ever, which is what we used to call “condition humaine” in french and philosophy class back then. It’s quite difficult to translate (“personhood” or “mankind” just sounds stupid and is absolutely not the same), but basically it raises the simple question what it means to be human, the source of all anthropological questions. This goes from interpersonal relationships and love to the interaction between men and society. 25th Hour fits perfectly into this scheme and it portrays those strong characters in such a fascinating way, arrr!
I used to really hate the gender studies stuff, but in this case, I really wonder how the story would have turned out with the genders reversed. It most likely would have not worked out: A woman would not deal drugs and if she did, it’s unlikely that her boyfriend would live on it. A female investment banker would have another character and she would not hit her best friend because of the provocations we see in the film. A female teacher might fall in love with her student, but she would probably not hope for more than a short and/or secret affair – and she would openly tell her (female) friends about it. Also, even if the same thing happened, it would make a completely different impact on the audience – if she looks like Philipp Seymour Hoffman, the viewer would probably think “Keep your hands from him, ugly woman” instead of “Poor guy!” and if she were attractive, the storyline would be pretty pointless. I won’t even comment on the difference on the dialogues and the nature of the friendship between the three – the way a woman behaves and lies to her friends is completely different from a man.
It shows that 25th Hour also has some clichés even though the characters are all so original and well-developed.
PS. I found Anna Paquin quite awful in this film. I mean, okay, she had this stupid role, but did she really also have to put up this annoying voice and tasteless clothes?