Spike goes conventional

Rating: 5/10 (17 April 2006)

Here's my biggest problem with "Inside Man" - why does Spike Lee start it the way he does? Without giving away anything, I have never understood screenwriters and filmmakers who decide to start films this way as a means of being unconventional. The trouble is, when you pull something like this, especially in a thriller, you take away any sense of danger from the protagonist. The audience is already in the know a couple of minutes into the picture, so it's rather pointless to put your hero, or in this case, anti-hero, in any danger throughout the rest of the picture.
"Inside Man" still remains an intriguing picture with some good performances. But after the heist takes on a pleasantly unexpected turn, the writer and Lee don't really go to any pains to hide from us the ugly details of someone's past. Given the character and circumstance, it really isn't too hard to figure out what the big secret is. And once that is done - and, believe me, the secret can be found out very quickly, even before Jodie Foster figures it out - the rest of the film loses much of its edge.
There really is no suspense here and you're simply waiting and wondering how the filmmakers will end this.
And, therein lies another problem. This film does not know when to end. Like the Energizer Bunny, it just keeps going and going and going from one denouement to another.
The performances are good. Then again, with Owen, Foster, Denzel Washington, Willem Dafoe, Chiwetal Eijofor and Christopher Plummer, how could they not be? But Washington, at times, seems to be going through the motions without much conviction and Foster - who's role is never quite explained, but that's alright - gets to be juicily cunning.
Lee's touches are unmistakable. Ever the political filmmaker, the best moments of "Inside Man" are the slight ones, the ones you quickly forget. Lee, in passing, makes subtle, yet potent, statements about police response in a post-9/11 America (and New York) and also how Americans continue to confuse Arab with Muslim, Sikh with Arab or Muslim or just about anyone who looks different with Arab or Muslim.
"Inside Man" is an enjoyable, albeit slight, escape into a heist film that is not as taut as it thinks it is.