Schizophrenia at the Multiplex

Rating: 6/10 (2 April 2006)

"The Inside Man" boasts some great lines and some stinkers. Thrilling scenes and quite long stretches that'll push you to the edge of sleep. Distinctive characters and ludicrous ones (Jodie Foster does what she can with one of the latter). Inventiveness and cliché.
Just when it your rattles your preconceptions, it settles you back down with Denzel doing Denzel, take eight (great actor, shame about the parts), and Christopher Plummer doing late-period Christopher Plummer (even greater actor, shame...). Just when it dazzles you with virtuoso film-making, it makes you tear your hair out -- it certainly seems to have made Denzel tear his out -- over an absurd McGuffin and more holes in the narrative logic than there are in the case for invading Iraq.
Spike Lee has tremendous visual flair. And he has come up with an ingenious solution to the problem of explaining the many hard-to-fathom plot details: he doesn't bother.