Highest 2 Lowest Review: Spike Lee’s Potentially Ambitious Re-imagining of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low Mostly Backfires
Spike Lee and Denzel Washington reunite in Highest 2 Lowest, nearly 20 years after they last collaborated in Inside Man. But what catches my attention the most is that Lee remade Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low. The 1963 black-and-white classic boasts one of Toshiro Mifune’s best performances, while Kurosawa’s astute direction in executing the first half’s tense chamber drama and the second half’s absorbing police procedural is a masterclass of filmmaking. The movie also delves into the ever-relevant themes of social inequality and class divide that still resonate even today.
I was hoping Lee could live up to Kurosawa’s masterpiece, especially after his last movie, Da 5 Bloods, five years ago, topped my list as the best movie of 2020. How I wish that would be the case, but from the moment Highest 2 Lowest opens jarringly with Norm Lewis’s version of “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'”, originally from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1943 musical Oklahoma! playing in the background, something feels off here. An awkwardly misplaced song that doesn’t match with the towering scene atop the balcony of a lush penthouse, where we first meet the music mogul David King (Denzel Washington) speaking on his phone over a deal.
We learn that he’s a highly influential bigwig in the music industry and is known for having the “best ears in the business” as the founder of Stackin’ Hits Records. He’s now looking to take control by buying back the ownership of his company, and to do that, he has risked it all using his personal assets. The opening stretch is surprisingly mundane as Lee, working from relative newcomer Alan Fox’s adapted screenplay, focuses on introducing the wealthy King family — David, his wife Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera) and their son Trey (Aubrey Joseph) — along with King’s confidant and driver, Paul (Jeffrey Wright).
It would take a while before the kidnapping begins, and even so, when King receives a call demanding US$17.5 million in exchange for letting Trey go, I can’t help but find the stakes somewhat lacklustre. The whole kidnapping situation with the police, who eventually handled the case, continues to limp throughout the prosaic first half, making me wonder if Lee’s on autopilot when he directed the scenes. Like High and Low, the kidnapper got the wrong person after mistakenly taking Kyle (Elijah Wright) instead, who is both Trey’s best friend and Paul’s son.
Here is where the moral dilemma starts: Will David King still pay the ransom even when the kidnapper made a mistake abducting the wrong son? Not just any son but the son of someone he’s close with — Paul. But paying US$17.5 million ransom money to the kidnapper, where he is not even obligated to do so, especially when the situation has changed, means he has to give up regaining his company’s ownership. High and Low delves into that conflict successfully.
But the same can’t be said for Highest 2 Lowest, where the movie simply goes through the motions. I figure the movie will finally find its footing once King decides to pay the kidnapper, but too bad the second half, which revolves around him carrying a backpack containing the ransom money to the designated place, with the police closely monitoring the process, lacks the much-needed tension to elevate the movie.
Washington’s typically commanding performance, whose arrogance and subtle personality within his David King character, is among the least lifesavers here. His co-stars, however, including Ilfenesh Hadera along with Aubrey Joseph and Jeffrey Wright, are sadly underutilised. Highest 2 Lowest‘s best scenes arrive rather too late with the solid introduction of a rapper, Yung Felon, played by ASAP Rocky, in his scene-stealing performance. Not to forget, the lively third act right until the coda, which sees Lee do a good job picking up the slack. If only the rest of the movie before the third act is just as good.
Highest 2 Lowest is currently streaming on Apple TV+.
