25th Hour (15) ****

Convicted drug dealer and bad boy Montgomery Brogan (Edward Norton) is enjoying his final fleeting moments of freedom before serving a seven-year stint in prison for possession of Class-A drugs.

During an eventful 24 hours, he reminisces about his life, including his relationship with girlfriend Naturelle (Rosario Dawson), and the camaraderie with best buddies Jakob (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Frank (Barry Pepper).

As the dreaded hour of incarceration approaches, Monty considers who might have tipped off the cops about his drugs stash, and he considers a tantalising proposition from his loving father James (Brian Cox), whose business has been propped up by his son's ill gotten funds.

In the process, Monty realises what he values most in life while the people around him face tough choices of their own.

25th Hour is a welcome departure for controversial film-maker Spike Lee, abandoning a rigid plot and narrative in favour of keenly observed vignettes and character detail.

Norton plays his fallen chancer with pathos and tightly coiled rage: in one of the film's most startling sequences, he stares intently into a mirror venting his spleen at the world, and ultimately himself.

Pepper and Hoffman offer strong support and Anna Paquin smoulders with youthful sexuality as a high school student who sets Jakob's loins aflame, seducing him in a dimly lit nightclub toilet.

Lee employs digital video to invest the film with a striking, grainy quality which perfectly suits the material, capturing the vibrancy of post-September 11 New York in all its glory, including the haunting image of two spotlights filling the Manhattan skyline where the World Trade Centre once stood.

The feeling of time ebbing away stokes the tension as the hour of Monty's imprisonment approaches. But even as the dreaded hour arrives, the film finds a sliver of hope, allowing Monty to dream of an alternative future for himself and Naturelle, far away from the hard realities of the prison yard.

See it at UCI (Sun & Tues only)