Excellent and absorbing

Rating: 8/10 (23 November 2008)

"Inside Man" is a wonderful Spike Lee film starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Willem Dafoe, Jodie Foster and Christopher Plummer. It's about a bank robbery planned by Owen that turns out to be something very clever and very different. Washington plays a police detective under investigation for missing money who, knowing he's innocent, wants to prove himself and get to detective first grade. He and his partner investigate this bank robbery, which has 50 hostages, all who have been given outfits and masks so that they're dressed like the robbers. Therefore, it's impossible to tell who the robbers are. It's also increasingly difficult, as Washington attempts to negotiate with them, to tell what it is they're after. When Foster, a high-level negotiator hired by the bank owner (Plummer) enters the scene, Washington knows something much bigger than money is involved.
Really excellent movie with twists and turns combined with humor and some really scary scenes. My only complaint is that Clive Owen is a bad choice to play someone who spends most of the movie in a mask. It's too frustrating to have someone that good-looking covered up.