‘Highest 2 Lowest’ review: Spike Lee swings between tonal extremes

From the opening moments of “Highest 2 Lowest,” Spike Lee’s remix-as-remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime thriller “High and Low,” you should know that the filmmaker is here primarily for a good time and he’s asking us to play along.

Over aerial shots of the sun hitting the New York City skyline, including the stunning Olympia building looming over Brooklyn, Lee layers “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” the opening song from the 1943 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Oklahoma!,” a jarring, cheeky choice that jolts us out of what we might think a Spike Lee Kurosawa remake is supposed to be.

The Japanese auteur has long been a major influence on Lee, and when the script for “Highest 2 Lowest” (by Alan Fox), which had been in development with other filmmakers, came his way, Lee made it his own. He also cast longtime collaborator Denzel Washington, an apt pairing. Kurosawa had Toshiro Mifune; Lee has Washington. (It’s their fifth film together.)

This all sounds great on paper, but what ends up on screen is a confusingly mixed bag. Kurosawa’s “High and Low” was based on the 1959 Ed McBain cop novel “King’s Ransom,” about a moral dilemma that becomes an identity crisis for a wealthy man. Transporting the action to Japan’s post-World War II economic boom, Kurosawa examined class differences in the country. Though Lee uses the text to comment on the haves and have-nots too, his focus is trained on the 21st century attention economy dictated by the social media hordes.

When we pick up with David King (Washington) on the balcony of his Olympia penthouse, he knows that a change is going to come this beautiful morning. A superstar music mogul, King is aware that his company, Stackin’ Hits, is about to be sold out from under him. Secretly, he’s set a plan in motion to orchestrate a leveraged buyout and take control of the sale. But when he receives a call that his son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph), has been snatched off the street and the kidnappers are demanding $17.5 million, his scheme to save his company goes up in smoke.

But then, Trey shows up. As it happens, the kidnappers have mistakenly taken his son’s best friend, Kyle (Elijah Wright), the child of David’s longtime confidant and driver, Paul (Jeffrey Wright), a devout Muslim rich in street smarts but not money. David’s personal relief is cut short when he has to decide if he’s going to pay the ransom and save his best friend’s kid — and his face, considering the media scrutiny — or follow his dream and save his company.

“Highest 2 Lowest” mimics the high and low bisection of Kurosawa’s film, with the first hour set in the moneyed confines of the Kings’ luxe apartment, laden with priceless African American contemporary art. As cinematographer Matthew Libatique’s camera lingers over the Basquiat and Kehinde Wiley paintings, one might wonder why he doesn’t just sell a few to remedy his money problems.

The first hour of “Highest 2 Lowest” is more baffling than anything else. The fluid long-take cinematography by Libatique is impeccable, but with a melodramatic tone courtesy of a distracting, over-the-top score by Howard Drossin and weak performances from the supporting cast, it feels more like a Tyler Perry movie than a Spike Lee joint.

But then, liberation: The film hits the streets and Lee unfolds an absolutely sublime piece of kinetic New York City filmmaking, a chase scene with a subway car full of Yankees fans chanting their anti-Boston sentiments intercut with a Puerto Rican Day Parade performance by the Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra. Finally, we’re cooking with gas. It’s one of the best sequences of the year.

David and Paul take matters into their own hands while searching for Kyle’s kidnapper, who turns out to be an aspiring rapper named Yung Felon (an excellent ASAP Rocky). Washington and Rocky face off in two electric scenes in the back half of the movie, both times separated by glass: a recording booth and a jail visitation. Rocky capably steps up to Washington’s loose but intense actorly flow and contributes a great song to the soundtrack too.

Washington is unsurprisingly mesmerizing, improvising small gestures and throwaway lines. But there’s still an element of camp and goofy humor that lingers, taking away from the script’s leaner, meaner elements. Generously, one might interpret this as a Brechtian nod toward the film’s artifice as an arch and knowing remake laden with references. But that keeps us at a distance from the emotional reality of these characters. When Lee brings everything home with a message about creating real art from the heart and the responsibility of stewarding Black culture, it’s a bit too late to take it seriously.

“Highest 2 Lowest” has its highs and lows, and when the highs are high, it soars. Those pesky lows are certainly hard to shake though.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.