THESE ARE THE ORIGINAL BLOODSTAINED COSTUMES SCREEN WORN BY
MATTHEW GOODE AS GARY SPARGO DURING FILMING OF THE HIT MOVIE: "THE LOOKOUT".
RECEIVED DIRECTLY FROM THE SET WITH COA FROM MIRAMAX FILMS.
- STUDIO TAG:
- 3 GARY
- CHANGE 11
- Sc. 176-240
- N13 / Dawn 14
The Lookout is a 2007 crime film written and directed by Scott Frank, screenwriter of Out of Sight and Get Shorty, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels, Matthew Goode, and Isla Fisher.
The Lookout is the directorial debut of the screenwriter Scott Frank. It was produced by Birnbaum/Barber, Laurence Mark Productions, Parkes/MacDonald Productions, Spyglass Entertainment, and Miramax Films.
Miramax distributes the film in the USA, and Buena Vista International elsewhere.
Although set near Kansas City, Missouri, the bank in the movie was filmed in the town of Hartney, Manitoba and city scenes were filmed in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Most notably, scenes of the skating rink were filmed behind the Millennium Library, and the exterior of Chris' apartment was filmed in the Exchange District and various historic sites in Winnipeg including the Bank of Montreal and 529 Wellington Crescent.
PLOT:
While driving with his headlights off down a country highway, Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), his girlfriend Kelly (Laura Vandervoort) and two friends crash into a stalled combine on the road. Chris and Kelly survive, but the other two do not.
Chris' injuries include brain damage that affects his short-term memory. To compensate for his inability to remember, he keeps notes in a small notebook.
He lives with a blind friend named Lewis (Jeff Daniels) who also aids him.
Resulting from his mental incapacitation, he is unable to have meaningful work.
Thus he works as a night cleaning man in a small-town bank. It is there he comes under the scrutiny of a gang planning to rob the bank. The leader, Gary (Matthew Goode), befriends him and uses a young woman, Luvlee (Isla Fisher), to seduce him.
Confused, but wanting to escape his current existence, he initially goes along with the scheme. After realizing he is being used, he attempts to stop the robbery, which immediately goes awry.
A sheriff's deputy (Sergio Di Zio) stumbles into the robbery while delivering doughnuts to Chris. Guns are fired and the deputy and two gang members (Marty, played by Morgan Kelly, and Cork, played by Aaron Berg) are killed.
Gary is wounded and one other bank robber, Bone (Greg Dunham), survives. Chris escapes in the car which contains the money they stole; he buries it near where his accident occurred.
As this is happening, the robbers kidnap Lewis to get the money back. The robbers and Chris meet to exchange the money for Lewis, but they force him to take them to the site of the buried cash.
While Chris digs in the snow to retrieve the money, Gary's health is rapidly deteriorating. Chris gives one of two bags to Bone, who then prepares to execute Lewis. Chris shoots Bone with a shotgun he'd hidden in one money bag.
At the same time, Gary collapses and dies from loss of blood. Chris returns the money and turns himself in.
An investigation by the FBI concludes that Chris could not have pulled off the robbery, by himself, due to his mental state - confirmed by video surveillance of the robbery. The film concludes with Chris and Lewis opening a restaurant financed by the manager of the bank.
BIOGRAPHY OF MATTHEW GOODE:
Matthew William Goode (born 3 April 1978) is an English actor.
Born in Exeter, Devon, Goode is the youngest child of five siblings (he has a brother, two half brothers, and a half sister from his mother's other marriage named Sally Meen). He grew up in the village of Clyst St.
Mary in Devon with a geologist father and a nurse mother who was also an amateur theatre director. Goode studied at the University of Birmingham and London's Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.
Goode became a father in 2009. He and his long-term partner, Sophie Dymoke, welcomed a baby girl named Matilda Eve on March 1, 2009. Goode may be best known for his role as Mandy Moore's romantic interest in the 2004 film "Chasing Liberty".
Beforehand, Goode had played the brother of Inspector Lynley in the BBC production "Inspector Lynley Mysteries: A Suitable Vengeance" and had parts in the TV-movie Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and the Shakespeare play "The Tempest".
In recent years he has appeared in the films "Match Point", "Imagine Me" & "You, My Family and Other Animals", opposite Imelda Staunton, Copying Beethoven, opposite Ed Harris and Diane Kruger, and "The Lookout".
Standing the test of time is his whimsical take on Brooke Burgess in the BBC serial based upon Anthony Trollope's He Knew He was Right.
Recent roles have included Charles Ryder in the 2008 film "Brideshead Revisited", the role previously taken by Jeremy Irons in the hugely popular 1980s serial. In 2009, he played the character of Adrian Veidt in Zack Snyder's "Watchmen".
Upcoming films include A Single Man (2009) (based on a novel) and reportedly Leap Year (2010). He is the face of Hackett, the English Gentleman's outfitters. Hackett also sponsors Jonny Wilkinson.
Matthew Goode trained at the prestigious Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts and began his career on the stage. His theatre work included the roles of Ariel in Shakespeare's "The Tempest," and Moon in Lorca's "Blood Wedding."
Goode most recently co-starred opposite Ed Harris and Diane Kruger in Agnieszka Holland's COPYING BEETHOVEN, a fictionalized account of the last year in the great composer's life.
In Woody Allen's acclaimed MATCH POINT, Goode starred as Scarlett Johansson's fiancé. His credits include the romantic comedy IMAGINE ME & YOU, which premiered at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival. Hailing from England, Goode was first introduced to American film audiences with his starring role in the romantic comedy CHASING LIBERTY, opposite Mandy Moore.
He made his feature film debut in Fernando Colomo's Spanish cult film SOUTH FROM GRANADA, a biopic about Gerald Brennan, played by Goode.
On television, he starred alongside Imelda Staunton in the BBC telefilm "My Family and Other Animals." His additional credits include the English crime drama "Marple: A Murder Is Announced," the BBC miniseries "He Knew He Was Right," "The Inspector Lynley Mysteries," and "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister," starring Stockard Channing, Jonathan Pryce, and Trudie Styler.
TRIVIA:
The hockey game Chris listens to on the radio was played during the 2005-2006 NHL season between the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Detroit Red Wings.
Players mentioned include Pascal Leclaire, Manny Malhotra, Mark Hartigan, and Trevor Letowski for Columbus and Robert Lang, Mikael Samuelsson, Nicklas Lidstrom, and Tomas Holmstrom for Detroit.
To be more convincing as a blind man, Jeff Daniels spent time at the Michigan Commission for the Blind Training Center in Kalamazoo, observing and learning some basic skills used by blind people on a daily basis.
To help him play a brain damaged man, Joseph Gordon-Levitt did not get much sleep and worked out hard at the gym before shooting to help him appear disoriented.
He also befriended people with brain damage and read "The Man with a Shattered World: The History of a Brain Wound".
The score was composed by James Newton Howard and was his first collaboration with director Scott Frank. Frequent collaborators Stuart Michael Thomas and Clay Duncan are credited with additional music.The score was orchestrated by Brad Dechter, Stuart Michael Thomas, and Chris P. Bacon, who also conducted. Several songs were featured including "One Big Holiday" and "Lay Low", both performed by My Morning Jacket.
ABOUT THE MOVIE:
With his adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel, Out of Sight, Scott Frank demonstrated a knack for crime thrillers with plenty of plot twists and double crosses. Now, he's finally gotten the chance to direct his own movie and the result is The Lookout, a neo-noir that evokes other crime movies like Charley Varrick and Fargo.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt continues his knack for offbeat roles. He does a great job portraying someone with neurological damage and the frustration that comes from not being able to do simple things like opening a can of food or remembering someone's name.
He also conveys the guilt his character feels over the car accident that robbed him of a promising future. We see how he tries to hide his disorder and the frustration of not being able to do basic things. It's a performance grounded in realism that is in contrast to this stylized noir world. It doesn't hurt that he is surrounded by cold, detached characters, and this makes him very sympathetic as well.
Jeff Daniels steals pretty much every scene he's in as Chris' genial roommate. The actor displays a dry sense of humour that is very funny to see in action. He and Gordon-Levitt's character make for very unlikely roommates to say the least but the two actors make it work thanks to the excellent chemistry they have together.
Along with The Squid in the Whale and Good Night, and Good Luck, Daniels is turning out to be quite an excellent character actor appearing in several well-made independent films.
Frank has a keen visual sense, adopting a predominantly dark colour scheme in keeping with the neo-noir tradition. He has crafted a clever little thriller with a fascinating protagonist at its centre. What could have easily been a forgettable film is anchored by yet another riveting performance by Gordon-Levitt.
"Behind the Mind of Christ Pratt" features an interview with the film's star, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He was drawn to the complexity of the character and ended up living with the role for almost a year. He talks about how he portrayed Chris and speaks intelligently about his take on the material.
"Sequencing The Lookout" takes a look at various aspects of the movie: the script, casting, the look, and so on in an interesting way. Frank says that he was influenced by European thrillers that emphasized character. He talks about the origins of the story as well.
