At first glance, “The Lookout” could be mistaken for a second-rate “Memento” or “Usual Suspects”, but the movie proves to rise above the blandness, and creates a memorable tale of betrayal, deceit and redemption.

Once upon a time, Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) was the biggest high school hockey star in the state of Kansas. Throw in a late night of joyride gone wrong, and Pratt’s life is literally turned upside down. After the car accident that kills two of his friend, Chris is left a bit slower mentally and four years after the incident, Chris is still looking to picking up the pieces in his life, working as a night janitor at a rural bank.

Pratt is befriended by Gary Spargo (Goode) and ex-dancer Luvlee (Fisher) and suddenly Chris thinks he has a new group of friends. Little does Chris know that the new friends know he works at the bank they are planning to rob. They consider Pratt’s closed head injury a blessing, because the law wouldn’t touch someone who can barely retain anything he was told. From there, Chris goes along with the plans, and shuns his friends, including Chris’ blind roommate (Daniels). The robbery ensues, and goes wrong, leaving Chris versus Gary and his cohorts in crime to battle for the whereabouts of the money.

It’s easy to call Levitt’s character a younger version of Guy Pearce’s character in “Memento”, but there is more of a vunerable side to Levitt’s character, and pulls off the role remarkably well. The vision I have of Levitt is the young kid with the “butt-cutt” from 3rd Rock From the Sun (or the kid from “Dazed & Confused, but I know that’s not him). With his acclaimed role in the indie flick “Brick”, Levitt is starting to gain momentum and pulls off the emotionally and physically fragile character beyond most people’s expectations. Goode’s Spargo comes off as a conflicted but affable enough guy, before he descends into his evil side. Daniels is humorous in some scenes, but downright mean in others. After her memorable role in “Wedding Crashers”, Fisher’s part is way too scaled down, and fades off into oblivion about 75 percent into the film.

The movie is paced a little slow in the beginning, and you can tell things are about to happen, but some movie-goers might may not the initial pacing of the flick. “The Lookout” may not be the instant classic that the earlier flicks mentioned were (but it’s close), but its intriguing storytelling makes it a must see. And it may just get a certain young actor a one way ticket out of the teen-actor slum from here on out.

GRADE: B+