Highest 2 Lowest Parent Guide

No one is bigger in the New York City music business than legendary producer David King (Denzel Washington). The head of Stackin’ Hits Records, David is facing a crisis, as his other shareholders want to sell the business to a rival label. Reluctant to lose everything he spent his life building, David has leveraged a large loan against his assets to buy back a majority share in the label. The day of the deal, David gets a call: His son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph) has been kidnapped, and the abductors want $17.5 million in ransom.

When Trey turns up seemingly unharmed, it appears that the kidnappers have erred. It looks like they accidentally grabbed Trey’s friend Kyle (Elijah Wright), who is also the son of Paul (Jeffrey Wright), David’s driver. At this point, the victim’s identity is moot: The kidnappers still insist that, unless they get the money, they’ll kill whoever it is they’ve got. With all of his money wrapped up in the deal with Stackin’ Hits, David has to decide whether his company is worth the life of someone else’s kid. And whether his public image can survive if he makes the wrong choice…

Highest 2 Lowest is an intriguing reimagining of the Akira Kurosawa movie High and Low, and while it seems to be a faithful adaptation in the broad strokes, it isn’t trying to be a remake. Director Spike Lee has really taken off with the source material, and the result is an interesting, twisty crime thriller anchored by a strong performance from Denzel Washington.

The film avoids a lot of the expected negative content issues, especially the extreme violence that often characterizes thrillers – a character is seen badly bruised, others are involved in a brief fistfight, and someone is injured by broken glass when their windshield is shot out. Unusually for a crime thriller, nobody is actually shot or killed. There’s a brief scene of suggestive dancing from some scantily clad women, and a briefer scene of a side character smoking marijuana. Where this film earns its “R” rating is in profanity: 83 f-bombs, 49 racial slurs, and 43 scatological references round out a fairly impressive swear count.

However, for adult audiences less perturbed by profanity, the refreshing lack of violence and sexual content make this a very accessible crime thriller. I think it runs fifteen minutes too long, but the twists and turns of the story keep the audience invested – and, of course, Denzel delivers an emotionally complex performance with his usual aplomb.

About author

Keith Hawkes

Keith Hawkes graduated from Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada with a degree in English and History. His interests are movies, American literature, science fiction, almost every kind of music, and museums. He enjoys criticizing films for fun - although he's okay with being paid for it.