Spike Lee's "The 25th Hour" is respectful, melancholic, sardonic, whimsical, but above all else, unequivocal. In a movie that uses the backdrop of the Twin Tower tragedy to illustrate the tenacity of the human spirit to go on, Spike Lee doesn't hold back on crime and punishment. Unlike the rather ambiguous ending of "Do the Right Thing", in this film, we have the replay of the temptation scene in "The Last Temptation of Christ" to powerfully connect all the dots in the lives of five very tormented people. Regrets are many from the father (Brian Cox) who drank too much to support his kid to the drug dealer, Monty (exceptionally played by Edward Norton) who couldn't leave the table while he was ahead, to his girlfriend Naturelle (Corina Dawson) who benefited from all the riches without trying to stop the live of crime to the best friend, Frankie (Barry Pepper), who knew early on that things would end up badly. Philip Seymour Hoffman as Jacob, gives a sterling performance as a school teacher secretly lusting his 'lolita' student (Anna Paquin). Spike Lee doesn't hold anything back from the opinionated viewpoints of foreigners in New York City to the super-stud values of a single white male. But everything revolves around Monty and the future that awaits him in prison the very next day. The film powerfully teaches us that once the deed is done, consequences have to be paid, be it a city that has to rebuild or a man who has to go on with his honor.
