2007
Rated R
Written and Directed by Scott Frank
Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Isla Fisher, Jeff Daniels, Matthew Goode

In the opening scene of The Lookout, Chris Pratt (Gordon-Levitt) is a good looking, popular, rich high school student with a beautiful girlfriend, on top of the world. But after getting into an accident on prom night, Chris is changed forever.

Four years later, Chris is a nighttime janitor at a bank, living in an apartment with a middle-aged blind man, Lewis (Daniels). As a result of Chris' accident, he is suffering from a brain injury that left him with damaged short-term memory, with trouble sequencing events, and with some emotional problems. He is a functional adult, but isn't living a full life. Chris has hopes of becoming a full-time teller at the bank or of opening a restaurant with Lewis.

But when Gary, an old acquaintance from high school (Goode) has plans with a group of friends to rob the bank where Chris works, he has ex-stripper Luvlee (Fisher) seduce Chris in order to convince him to help with their heist. Although Chris is generally a good guy, he gets confused about right and wrong at times, and he ends up getting involved.

I won't go too much into the storyline in case you want to see it. But I have to say that I enjoyed the first part of the movie much more than the second part. It was really interesting to see how Chris got by day to day (by writing himself lots of notes, just like in Memento), and his relationships with Lewis and with his rich, detached family. I think that if the entire movie had been about that, I'd have enjoyed it more.

But the heist storyline left a lot to be desired. It had the potential to be very intense, but instead it bored me a little bit. Isla Fisher, who was one of the few things that didn't annoy me about Wedding Crashers, was one-dimensional and unconvincing, not to mention grating as Luvlee. She should stick to comedy.

Still, an enjoyable movie. Just not a great one.