cat meets cat across the bridge of retribution

Rating: 7/10 (7 April 2006)

"Inside Man." Okay. Admittedly I thought about exiting Grauman's Chinese in the middle of the "to assault, or not to assault" scenario revelry, but I held on. Afterall, Denny Z, Plumer and Dee'Foss were doing some ensemble terrific at this game of cat and cat. The story had not really sunk in for almost twelve hours until I looked deep into the, "What was Dee'Foss doing besides being cute" thing, (I had immediately wondered if her character was hip enough to bring latex gloves for her captors to frisk her completely with. (Either JF's rilly uncomfortable in heels the way say Tina flaunts them, or she put some punctuation to that untold revelry all on her Ivy league own, bless her heart.)) Then the cultural archetypes began to fall into place.
Clowen performs a nice classical chorus to his role of mad world's eccentric, and it's more memorable than one might imagine at first glance unless you are immediately grasping the point of view. I greeted the opening oreotorio with an, "Yeah right asshole. You are as 'bout a limp a poetic warrior as the political science professor who never leaves the page," attitude. The "if you're so smart how'd you get in there" punch came back at me like the queen of spades after losing the first heart on the previous trick. So my point of view has been working the dial since, and the world is as mad as I fear. JoDee nails the ilk of that cream of pure opportunist, the ones that make affirmations to themselves in the mirror of their morning ego. There are too many, like Apple software developers, not everywhere, but enough to intrude on system clarity. They think you are sleeping when you are just too exasperated with them to care.....at that particular point in time, eh Mr. Mastermind, Eh!
ChrisP plays unction to the privileged hilt. Though it is more subtle, the excuses are the same, 'Young and easily persuaded.' "Hey Officer Krumke don't be a Square."
We know DenZ's Detective has opted to play the system in this affair, that he got "persuaded" to do so, but his character is clean of anything behind, to need to atone for, and therein lies one of the differences between the ilk of the overly privileged and the work minded ilk. When there's blood in the street it's mostly cause someone who's a hungering for something they cannot really identify has incited a firestorm of baser instincts within or around themselves. Those who fire first are the most convinced, the overly loyal or them who deeply don't know what else to do, but have shouldered the means to do so. It's the capitalist intrusion into the social facet that makes fodder of us all on both sides of the line. To the sponges go the spilled and the spoilt and the spoiled. Jodi Foster's character is so leveraged into the spoils system that the notion of a hard days work is anything that is not directly involved in cashing a check. Make sure there's enough latex to go around.
So, embrace this film. See the world through its character's eyes. The film, without overstating, repeats what it thinks is important, and the actors give us a way in. Oh, and note the Director. Otherwise you will forget and won't know who to notice next time you're just looking.