Review of 'Highest 2 lower': Spike Lee Swings between tonal ends

From the first moments of the “highest 2 tallest”, Spike Lee's remix, the 1963 crime thriller remake of Akira Kurosawa, “High and Low”, you should know that the filmmaker is here mainly for a good time and asks us to play.

On the air shots of the sun that hit the horizon of New York City, including the impressive Olympia building that is coming about Brooklyn, the layers of Lee “Oh, what a beautiful morning”, the opening song of the 1943 Rodgers and Hammerstein Musical “Oklahoma!”, It is supposed to be a shameless choice.

The Japanese author has long been a great influence on Lee, and when the script for “lower 2 higher” (by Alan Fox), which had been in development with other filmmakers, it occurred to him, Lee made him his own. He also launched the long -standing collaborator Denzel Washington, an adequate match. Kurosawa had Toshiro Mifune; Lee has Washington. (It's your fifth movie together).

All this sounds very good on paper, but what ends on the screen is a confusingly mixed bag. The “Alto and Bajo” de Kurosawa was based on the 1959 “King's Ransom”, about a moral dilemma that becomes an identity crisis for a rich man. Transporting the action to the economic boom after Japan World War II, Kurosawa examined class differences in the country. Although Lee uses the text to comment on those who have and also those who do not have, their approach is trained in the 21st century care economy dictated by the hordes of social networks.

When we collect with David King (Washington) on the balcony of his attic Olympia, he knows that a change will arrive this beautiful morning. A superstar music tycoon, King is aware that his company, Stackin 'Hits, is about to sell from under it. Secretly, he has put a moving plan to orchestrate an leverage purchase and take control of the sale. But when he receives a call that his son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph), has been taken from the street and the kidnappers demand $ 17.5 million, his plan to save his company is put in smoke.

But then, Trey appears. It turns out that the kidnappers have taken by mistake their son's best friend, Kyle. David's personal relief is reduced when he has to decide if he is going to pay the rescue and save the son of his best friend, and his face, considering the scrutiny of the media, or follow his dream and save his company.

“Highest 2 lower” mimics the high and low bisension of the Kurosawa movie, with the first hour set in the confines of money from The Kings' Luxe Apartment, loaded with an invaluable African -American contemporary art. While the camera director Matthew Libatique remains on Basquiat and Kehinde Wiley paintings, one might ask why not only sells some to remedy their money problems.

The first time of “higher 2 lower” is more disconcerting than anything else. Libatique's long -shot fluid cinematography is impeccable, but with a melodramatic tone courtesy of a distracting and exaggerated score of Howard Drossin and weak actions of the support cast, feels more like a Tyler Perry film than a Spike Lee articulation.

But then, Liberation: The film comes to the streets and Lee develops an absolutely sublime piece of the cinetic city of New York, a persecution scene with a metal car full of Yankees fans who sing their anti-boston feelings interspersed with an performance of the Puerto Rico Parade by the Orchestra Eddie Palmieri Salsa. Finally, we are cooking with gas. It is one of the best sequences of the year.

David and Paul take the matter in their own hands while looking for Kyle's kidnapper, who turns out to be a rapper candidate named Yung Felon (an excellent Asap Rocky). Washington and Rocky face in two electric scenes in the back of the film, both times separated by Glass: a recording cabin and a visit to jail. Rocky approaches the loose but intense acting flow of Washington and contributes a great song to the soundtrack.

Washington is surprisingly fascinating, improvising small gestures and disposable lines. But there is still an element of camp and dumb humor that persists, removing the thinnest elements of the script. Generally, one could interpret this as a Brechtian wink towards the artifice of the film as an arc and a new version loaded with references. But that keeps us at a distance from the emotional reality of these characters. When Lee brings everything home with a message on the creation of real art of the heart and the responsibility of managing black culture, it is too late to take it seriously.

“The 2 highest” lower “have their ups and downs, and when the maximums are high, it rises. However, those annoying minimums are certainly difficult to shake.

Katie Walsh is a film critique of the Tribune news service.