The Lookout

I was expecting a little more from this, but it wasn't as good as Brick.

I didn't really get a good understanding of protagonist's mental handicaps- his hands shake, he blurts things out- that's fine but doesn't have much bearing on the movie. He can't figure some things out and forgets things- but it's not clear what the rules are. A really excellent movie would make the viewer feel like they share the handicap also- more voice-over and maybe some more overt tricks (not necessarily Memento level) can do that. But we never really know what is normal and expected and what is really struggling for him.

The ending was pretty straightforward, a little too simple. Not as simple and dumb as the Payback ending of A History of Violence, but decent.

The girl kind of disappears from the ending- I feel like there are deleted scenes that deal with her, or the scenes earlier on with her ought to be deleted scenes- her seeing the guns in the station wagon, Jeff Daniels being suspicious of her to no real benefit to anyone. I suppose it would have been cliche to involve her in the climax and have her either lie about having feelings for the protagonist or genuinely have them and switch sides (or just decide pragmatically to switch sides), but she needed to have at least one more scene or far fewer scenes.

There are really under-utilized themes that could have contributed more- the Gary character is a loser, was a loser in high school- the girl he went out with doesn't remember him (or that was a lie to help him be friendly)- and is a loser now. The protagonist was a popular jock who has his life, his physical and mental abilities reduced, but now is more of a loser than the other guy.

I thought maybe the girls talking up to the guy was all fake, they never even knew him, but I guess it was real since it is never mentioned again. And the villains didn't seem like they were going to do that much research.