This bank robber is gonna walk right out the door...when he's good 'n ready

Rating: 8/10 (28 November 2009)

In a prosperous Manhattan bank in broad daylight, a group of thugs dressed like painters walk in and take control of the building--but what they're after is another story altogether. When a movie-watching audience invests their faith in a good filmmaker, such as Spike Lee is here, you can almost feel the giddy anticipation rising up in the theater; you know this picture is going to be a satisfying adventure because you implicitly trust where the director is taking you. Aside from several fast-forwards in time (which are confusing at first) and a let's-just-say sequence (visualized for us) wherein the police discuss storming the building, this is a twisty, marvelously absorbing cops-and-crooks thriller with fantastic characters. Denzel Washington plays the lead detective, his head already on the block from a former case, trying to decipher what these "bank robbers" actually want (at one point saying to the leader, "You don't want a plane! You saw "Dog Day Afternoon"...you're stalling!"); Clive Owen is the intensely focused gang leader; Christopher Plummer is the bank's wealthy owner who has a "special interest" in one of the safe deposit boxes; and Jodie Foster is the flirtatious, unscrupulous negotiator helping Plummer get what he wants. Perhaps some of the intricate details don't bear close scrutiny, however the set-up and follow-through are both marvelous. Screenwriter Russell Gewirtz should work with Spike Lee more often--together they make an unbeatable combination. ***1/2 from ****