Once a year, when the harvest night is just crisp enough, Chris Pratt takes his friends to see the fireflies on Route 24. Turning off his headlights, the four of them cruise along, immersed in the beauty of the creatures’ glow. When they turn the headlights back on, the car crashes into a parked combine harvester. The two in the back seat are killed, Chris’ girlfriend loses her leg, and Chris is brain-damaged.

Four years later, he works as a janitor at a local farmtown bank and goes to “special classes” where he learns to write lists and focus on objectives. And when he forgets things, he becomes very angry.

On the surface level, this movie is just one thing: depressing. The audience is uncomfortable from the beginning. Car accidents are almost too real for us, especially ones that result in brain damage. This is where the strength of the movie lies – the raw, tragic, terrifying concept that “Hey, this could happen to me.”

We see how Chris Pratt, a boy who had everything – genius, athletic prowess, friends, respect – could lose all of it because of one stupid move. We are drawn into his misery and his anger at himself and the world, which is very moving. Sadly for us, the filmmakers lacked the courage to see this wonderful idea through without throwing a bank robbery into the mix. Therefore, a movie that touched greatness is reduced to another cheap heist film. Yawn.

Still, there are positive aspects too. A very prominent one is Joseph Gordon-Levitt, an actor who is not afraid to share the nastier aspects of humanity with you who commits, commits, commits to what he is doing. The epitome of the “angry young man,” Levitt effortlessly steals scenes in the way he walks, talks, when he makes eye contact, when he does not. He carries around his scars as penance for his foolhardy actions that cost him the world he knew. His misery is mesmerizing. While looking for the can opener, unable to remember it is done by the machine, Levitt tears apart the kitchen, completely incapable of separating what is important in life and what is unimportant. So severe is his pain, he would rather face destruction than ask anyone for help.

I should clarify the extent of his brain damage. Aside from having a limp, he can speak, write and walk normally.

Only his ability to order things, remember simple details or even converse like a normal person, without blurting out something inappropriate (see: talking to the ladies) is forever broken. To help deal with this, he keeps a notebook that he pours his frustration in.

The true attraction to this movie is very much in what is not said, but what we, as an audience, learn for ourselves. This is a film about forgiveness. This is a poor boy who lives in a hopeless world, a boy who seeks redemption beyond all else. His life is pain, and he welcomes it. It tortures him, and, in his mind, he feels he deserves it. Does he deserve it? Are there some actions that become unforgivable? If you see Levitt’s performance, your heart goes out to him. You have no choice but to forgive him, even if no one else will.

Other strong elements include Chris Pratt’s roommate, Lewis – the ever lovable Jeff Daniels. Lewis is blind, but what he lacks in sight, he makes up for in vision so clear that he often becomes the strength for Pratt’s character.

He is a fellow “freak,” who every day gives Pratt reason to keep living and seeking redemption.

I just wish it wasn’t a heist movie. Several men, one of which was a friend of Pratt’s in high school before the accident, want to use Pratt in their planned robbery of the bank, where Pratt works as a janitor.

While they break in, he has to stand guard as the lookout. Hence the title.

But who cares? Really? We’re already invested in the movie and in the character of Chris Pratt. What does the heist add to his quest for forgiveness? What does it show us that a less-contrived event couldn’t? I feel Levitt was cheated out of a great performance by an unrealized script. Pity really, because he was very good. I leave you with the reason why I enjoyed this movie.

The life of Chris Pratt: He wakes up. He makes breakfast. He wakes up, he showers. Sometimes he cries. He wakes up.

Overall: As a heist thriller, it is passable; but this movie is so much more than that. It’s about our desire for forgiveness, even in the most dire of circumstances. See it for Gordon-Levitt, if nothing else.

Ellis J. Wells is a senior in performing arts from Portishead, England.