Highest 2 Lowest appears more as an Apple product than a Spike Lee production.
Highest 2 Lowest ends up being a disappointment, where every element of a Spike Lee film, a beloved classic, and a charismatic cast are assembled, but fail to find their harmony
Spike Lee’s reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low (1963) had its world premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and was released in select theatres before joining Apple TV+. Kurosawa, considered one of the greatest thrillers in cinema, is based on Ed McBain’s novel, King’s Ransom.
In Spike Lee’s adaptation, David King (Denzel Washington), a New York City legendary music tycoon described as having "the best ears in the business," encounters some financial troubles with Stackin' Hits Records, the label that he founded. When the said label is threatened to be sold to a rival one, King pledges to buy some of his partners’ shares to regain the majority. That plan becomes compromised when he receives a call from an unknown number, a man claiming to have kidnapped his son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph), and requesting $17.5 million in Swiss 1,000-franc notes as a ransom. But the decision to pay transforms itself into a dilemma once King finds out that the kidnapper mistook his employee’s son for Trey and holds him captive instead.
Highest 2 Lowest incorporates the music industry equation, the father initially being at the head of a shoe company in Kurosawa’s High and Low. The film knows countless transformations, translating elements from the 1963 classic to modern New York City. From practical ones where technology plays a part to symbolic ones, differentiating the two cultures depicted in both films. The pinnacle of the film, where its core thesis fully comes alive in that Spike Lee style of flying cameras and heightened senses, is in a stunning chasing sequence mediating in music genres, New York City identities and belongings to communities, whether it’s of ethnicity, of economic class, or even a baseball team.
And while the intention is there, Spike Lee’s respect for High and Low is palpable, this new adaptation fails to land on its feet as a whole. A mismatched screenplay is its first weakness, with a mellow lyricism and constant naivety constantly infused into the characters to the point that we lose all sense of thriller and rather witness a family drama whose ethical predicament ends up turning in circles, rehashing the same emotions without much of an evolution into the character’s moral journey. Paired with unconvincing performances, lines come out idle, and the characters are vacant.
Highest 2 Lowest ends up being a disappointment, where every element of a Spike Lee film, a beloved classic, and a charismatic cast are assembled, but fail to find their harmony.
Highest 2 Lowest is now available on Apple TV+.
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