Great concept, strong cast and yet...{{Spoilers Possible}}

Rating: 7/10 (7 September 2006)

...something feels a little wanting here.
Spike Lee,continuing to gradually drift away from the straight,socio-political meat movies that made him famous(Do the Right Thing,Jungle Fever,Malcolm X,Get On the Bus) and towards more general genres(Crooklyn,Clockers,Girl 6,Summer of Sam)helms this film which is intended to be a crime caper. I say intended because the story takes fragmented turns throughout,no doubt to be the(or part of the)"twist"this movie aims for.
On a seemingly typical New York City morning at a large branch bank,a highly elaborate robbery takes place and in the process,a large number of hostages are taken. The leader of this effort,Dalton Ross(Clive Owen,interesting choice and doesn't disappoint)has planned this effort to the letter,creating a situation that has the NYPD scrambling. One detective,Frazier(Denzel Washington,cool and smart,game for any head-game out there) is reading the situation and seems to be able to make a psychological connection with Ross. At the same time,the upright bank founder and owner(Christopher Plummer),sensing that there may be some sort of sticky mess on the loom thanks to this burglary,employs an outside agent--a "fixer",as she's referred to--named White(Jodie Foster)to try to work in concert with the police get what he wants.
As said before,this is a neat concept of a film:basically,a crime caper that sort of "knows" what it is and yet moves at a somewhat different pacing and aim. I'm coming perilously close to revealing stuff about this film,so I'll only say that you the viewer if you choose to watch this will be well-advised to AVOID jumping to any conclusions during the run of the movie. I say that,because I kinda fell into that trap a few times while watching this. Writer Russell Gewirtz's script seems to be striving to be a little TOO clever,and the cut-aways and non-sequitirial jumps in the linnear progress of the story can be somewhat(if not a lot)discombobulating and irritating. Washington and Owen are strong here,Foster doesn't seem to quite belong in this movie and plummer seems to be playing something he's been playing a little too often,namely upright elder-statesmen who have potential for keeping ugly skeletons in their closets. Director Lee's social commentary is limited but smart,with the very few of his observations leveled mostly on the NYPD police and how they can over-react and assume(a la profiling)to suspects or perceived suspects in a crisis situation.
Interesting,somewhat difficult to warm up to,I'd still say that this film shouldn't let down fans of most of the principals of this film(particularly Denzel's). My only real tip for viewing this movie is this:watch it to the end and keep an open mind.