HIGHEST 2 LOWEST - Mark Reviews Movies

Highest 2 Lowest, A24

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | August 14, 2025

For its first two acts, Alan Fox's screenplay for Highest 2 Lowest begins and proceeds as a straightforward, if modernized, version of the film upon which it's based. That would be director Akira Kurosawa's High and Low, the 1963 masterpiece about a kidnapping and a police investigation and much more than those procedural elements. The main change, however, is Fox and director Spike Lee's complete focus on a character whose role in the source material gradually fades as the story progresses. For a bit, it almost seems as if the filmmakers might have missed the point of the story they're telling.

They haven't, however, because this film gradually releases itself from the constraints of straightforward adaptation to reveal that the people behind it have their own story to tell. It is that of David King (Denzel Washington), who is, in this version, an executive for a record company that has lost some of its prestige over the years. David, who is mostly known as King because he is perceived as a king of the industry, believes he can return the label to its former glory if he takes complete control of the business.

In the original (also based, as this film additionally is, on the Ed McBain novel King's Ransom), that starting point leads to a kidnapping plot, which leads to a moral dilemma for the character that he seems unsuited to meet at first. Eventually, the police take over the narrative, but here, that turning point never happens. Our protagonist is the king, after all, and Lee treats him as such.

This becomes a remake that fully justifies its existence, then. It does a decent job re-creating what worked in the original and, then, finds a new, clever, and thoughtful way to break through the source material, in order to come out the other side with a unique perspective on everything that has come before it. That the film is also filled with Lee's most obvious interests, as minor as sports (Fans of Boston teams will hopefully have a sense of humor about a lot of this, for example) and as major as the responsibility of maintaining the legacy of Black art and culture, makes it even more fascinating.

Again, the plot is essentially the same as the '63 film from the start. David has assembled all of his assets, from a loan against his swanky condominium with a beautiful view of Manhattan past the Brooklyn Bridge to cashing in assorted stocks, with the goal of buying the record company, which is currently planned to be sold to a vulture-like business entity. He's so close to achieving his goal, but just before he can set the deal in motion, David receives an anonymous phone call. The caller says he has kidnapped the mogul's teenage son Trey (Aubrey Joseph), who was at a summer basketball camp with his best friend Kyle (Elijah Wright), the son of David's long-time chauffeur and confidant Paul (Jeffrey Wright).

This is, obviously, devastating to David and his wife Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera), who tell the cops, quick to arrive at the condo and treat David with abundant respect, they will pay any amount in ransom to see their son's return. It's soon revealed, though, that Kyle, not Trey, was kidnapped. While the police—who already treated Paul with suspicion and contempt because of his criminal past—seem to lose a bit of their urgency when the kidnapper's error is discovered, David does, too, even though he is Kyle's godfather, claims the teen is like another son to him, and knows exactly what his close friend is experiencing—since he just went through it earlier that day.

The dilemma, of course, is that the ransom demanded, $17.5 million, is everything David has. To lose it, if the cops can't retrieve the cash, would bankrupt him, as well as his own family, and essentially end his career. Unfortunately, Lee isn't subtle about playing out these debates and discussions about what a life is worth and whose fate should matter more to David, and many scenes of those conversations are accompanied by Howard Drossin's loud, manipulative musical score. It clashes with Lee's precise framing, with certain scenes playing out in lengthy one-takes, and the inherent moral, as well as plot, stakes of the material.

Thankfully, that's out of the way soon enough, and Lee is allowed to stage an elaborate chase, using the crowded subway and the boisterous backdrop of a parade as both complications for and a soundtrack to the sequence, and dig into David's character more. Unsurprisingly, Washington dominates every moment here, as a man who lays his plans, sees them uprooted by unforeseeable circumstances, and has to face the cruel irony that doing the right thing is neither an easy task nor often rewarded. The character is so plainly established by Washington's star power and developed as the kidnapping/rescue plot unfolds that the film's most notable shift from its source material isn't much of a shock.

Indeed, it feels like the only choice here, as set up by the filmmakers. In terms of plotting, Highest 2 Lowest becomes more of a revenge thriller in its third act, although that doesn't stop Fox and Lee from raising ideas about class, the similar backgrounds but distinct philosophies of our protagonist and the antagonist, and how—but for luck and other matters of circumstance—things could have turned out differently for either of these two men. In its own way, then, the film is, like the original, a thriller with a mind and a conscience.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products

Buy the Book

Buy the Book (Kindle Edition)