A promising but failed movie

Rating: 3/10 (21 March 2007)

I went into this movie with high expectations. The cast and director had done some outstanding work in the past. The plot sounded interesting, with ample chance for rich story and character elements. I came out more disappointed than in any movie in years. A borrowed "bank heist" premise and a few gritty, stylized, or eccentric touches and small-scale human-nature observations do not add up to a good movie. This is true no matter how talented, intelligent, and otherwise successful the people involved. I cannot join in a chorus of empty praise for what is so clearly a failed film.
The storytelling was slow-paced, uneven, disorganized, and uninspired. Long before the film finally dragged to an end and revealed the secret of the heist, I had stopped caring. When the drawn-out movie was not belaboring dense details that did not add up to anything larger, it was veering into thin, superficial subplots -- ones that were either boring or far-fetched and sensationalistic -- with even more superficial characters, dialogue, and interactions.
None of the characters were worth caring about or had any depth. They were mere stick-figure plot devices. I have never seen Denzel Washington look bad until this film, or play a less coherent, less impressive character. Other characters were cardboard villains, perhaps with some shock-value traits pasted on for effect, even down to the gray-haired establishment type who appeared briefly to spew obscenities every other word. Jodie Foster made an interesting ice-cold, high-society "fixer," and Clive Owen a smooth, cool, wily robber, but their thin, flat characters were mere injected devices for unbelievable actions and story lines. Despite their talents, Willem Dafoe and Christopher Plummer were able to add nothing, with stiff performances in empty roles. An air of pseudo-sophistication threw a wet blanket on all of the performances.
As a commentary on society or human nature, the film's observations seem trivial. As a crime drama, the police work could not have been less impressive or the dramatic presentation less suspenseful. The rushed attempt toward the end to tie together plot threads, finally create some dramatic momentum, and belatedly manufacture heroics was confusing, contrived, unrealistic, out-of-place, and ineffective.
Quite frankly, the disparate elements of this uneven film did not come together to tell a meaningful or entertaining story on any level. It was a major disappointment. The movie does not deserve all the strained, lame, and sometimes outright embarrassing attempts to portray it as a "masterpiece" or to make excuses for it.