25th Hour
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25th Hour is a Spike Lee motion picture based on David Benioff's novel The 25th Hour. The cast includes Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Rosario Dawson, Brian Cox and Anna Paquin.
Norton plays the part of Montgomery "Monty" Brogan, a convicted drug dealer who has one last day of freedom before beginning a seven-year prison sentence. Brogan was originally planned to be played by Tobey Maguire, but Maguire was forced to pull out with other commitments.
Plot summary
Template:Spoiler At the beginning of the movie, Brogan is arrested for possession with intent to distribute heroin, and sentenced to seven years in prison. He spends his last day free on bail hanging out with his two best friends, Jakob Elinsky and Frank Slattery (Hoffman and Pepper), his father (Cox), and his girlfriend, Naturelle (Dawson). Over the long night of partying, he reflects on his life, where he went wrong, how his incarceration will affect those he loves, and how to survive in prison.
The film also focuses on the characters in Brogan's life. Elinsky and Slattery try to be supportive, but secretly resent him for living such a dangerous, amoral lifestyle for so long, while his father blames himself for what is happening to his son. Naturelle, meanwhile, worries about remaining in a relationship with a man who is in prison; Brogan, for his part, can't escape the suspicion that she was the one who tipped off the police.
There is also a subplot concerning Elinsky, a high school teacher, trying to suppress his sexual attraction to one of his students (Paquin) — who, as luck would have it, shows up at the club where Brogan is having his last hurrah.
The 25th Hour is also notable for being one of the first movies released after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to not only acknowledge the tragedy, but to incorporate it into the plot.
Trivia
"25th Hour" contains several references to the comic book franchise X-Men. In one scene, Monty references the X-Men character Kitty Pryde (aka Shadowcat), a young woman who can walk through walls. Furthermore, four members of the "25th Hour" cast have appeared in at least one of the X-Men films. These four people are Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, Aaron Stanford, and Dania Ramirez. It is also interesting to note that David Benioff, the author of the "25th Hour" novel and screenwriter for this film, has been hired to pen the script for the X-Men spin-off film, Wolverine (film).
According to Spike Lee's audio commentary on the DVD, much of the dialogue between Jacob and Mary in the nightclub scene was recorded after the scene was shot.
Monty's quote, "Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends" was borrowed by the band Fall Out Boy (band), and served as the title of one of their songs.