Lee in Fine form along with Denzel & Co

Rating: 8/10 (29 March 2006)

Spike Lee & Denzel Washington these two movie heavy weights have collaborated on numerous occasions (4 to be precise), the most powerful being Malcom X. Having loved that I had high hopes for this movie, and thankfully I was not in the slightest disappointed. In fact I'd even go as far as saying the movie exceeded my expectations. It has a fantastic cast, one of the strongest the director has ever had at his disposal. With the likes of Denzel, Jodie Foster & Willem Defoe plus Clive Owen its quite an achievement for the director to get such powerful performances from each of these actors.
Denzel plays the role of Detective Keith Frazer who is in charge of negotiating with Bank robbers lead by Clive Owen who have laid siege to a Manhattan Bank. The film follows the complex mind of a criminal in Owen and the thinking behind our heroes motives to save the day (Washington). There is some clever screenplay where the audience is shown flash forwards in the Movie of the 2 detectives interviewing each of the bank hostages. This also means the audience always know the outcome of the movie form the start, but the way Spike Lee uses this to his advantage is pure genius. He keeps enough twists in the story, always predictable but delightfully impressionable upon the overall storyline. The characters are all interwoven in a great storyline, Jodie Foster plays cold as ice bitch hired by the bank owner, who will do anything for her pay cheque and to satisfy her employers. Never being much of a fan of Miss Foster I was very surprised at her performance, but this could largely be contributed to the superb script & narrative handed to her.
The film, mind you, does have a few floors. The pointless background to Denzel's character (girlfriend, relationship issues & brother in law problems) does not really add to much and could have been toned down. But the story is also peppered with light hearted comedy moments, especially when New York's finest are asked to solve a simple riddle which they do, but still end up arguing about it !! You'd expect any film by Spike Lee to touch on some racial issues, and he doesn't disappoint his fans including some post 9/11 and sexist undertones. The scene with the Sikh Hostage a highlight of this. He also manages to make New York which we have seen in many movies over time seem different every time you see it through the camera lens. Much how Michael Mann uses LA as his homage, Lee will always credit the Big Apple as his background. The film looks beautiful and plays even better.
I maybe biased as Spike Lee is one of my favourite directors of all time, but with an ensemble cast of actors, some of whom I ain't even a fan of (Foster), this movie really does a great job of executing a fine script originally intended for Ron Howard (of Apollo 13 fame) to direct. We can only thank god that never happened !! GO SEE IT