My desire to see this movie stemmed from my complete love of Edward Norton as an actor. He rarely disappoints (The Italian Job is the only one i know of to date).
Having seen the movie and read the book, i feel that the story is amazing in itself. When Monty (E. Norton) realizes that everything in his life, everything he will be losing by going to jai, seems artifical, fake, superficial and just plain wrong there is such a humanistic quality, something everyone can relate to.
I also have to appreciate Spike Lees directorial choices, most notably the decision to change the script/story to fit in with the recent (at the time) events of 9/11.
One scene that stood out, and always has, was in the bathroom at his father's restaurant. In the book the scenario and the word choices were a bit different, but the same idea was there. I don't want to give anything away (which seems somewhat counterproductive), but I felt that that scene alone was worth watching.
Overall this is the transformation of a man from his "tough street persona" into a real-life, living breathing person. There are intense messages that are somewhat obvious, somewhat not, but it's in my list of the best movies i've ever seen.
Having seen the movie and read the book, i feel that the story is amazing in itself. When Monty (E. Norton) realizes that everything in his life, everything he will be losing by going to jai, seems artifical, fake, superficial and just plain wrong there is such a humanistic quality, something everyone can relate to.
I also have to appreciate Spike Lees directorial choices, most notably the decision to change the script/story to fit in with the recent (at the time) events of 9/11.
One scene that stood out, and always has, was in the bathroom at his father's restaurant. In the book the scenario and the word choices were a bit different, but the same idea was there. I don't want to give anything away (which seems somewhat counterproductive), but I felt that that scene alone was worth watching.
Overall this is the transformation of a man from his "tough street persona" into a real-life, living breathing person. There are intense messages that are somewhat obvious, somewhat not, but it's in my list of the best movies i've ever seen.