Smart, exciting, well-acted, funny caper movie

Rating: Null/10 (24 July 2011)

Oh how I wish there were more movies this smart and this good! Thank you, director Spike Lee and writer Russell Gewirtz! This is a great movie for a truly broad audience.
It's a "caper" movie, basically a bunch of people who have planned a bank heist. This is the story of how they pull it off.
On one side, we have Clive Owen as Dalton Russell, who starts the film off with a monologue: "My name is Dalton Russell. Pay strict attention to what I say because I choose my words carefully and I never repeat myself. I've told you my name: that's the Who. The Where could most readily be described as a prison cell. But there's a vast difference between being stuck in a tiny cell and being in prison..." On the other side, we have Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer), who is the founder of the bank that Russell is set to knock over. Case came over to the US following World War II, and has a lifetime of good works and a shelf full of awards to show for it.
In between, we have Denzel Washingtong as Detective Keith Frazier, who happens to be the cop who gets tabbed to run the "field headquarters" and direct the police as they attempt to end what seems to have started as a bank heist that turned into a hostage situation. Preferably to end it without innocent lives lost.
I don't want to spoil the fun; suffice it to say the Dalton Russell has planned this caper very, very, very carefully. He's enlisted an unlikely group of compatriots to bring it off. And he's very, very sure that they can make it work. Bank owner Arthur Case is concerned, because there is something in the bank that he wants to make sure is protected, something that means more to him than any sum of money. And the object of his concern is something that he really can't tell the police about, he doesn't dare even to hint that it exists.
To make sure this property is protected-- without involving the police-- Case calls in someone who apparently has made a reputation as a "fixer": the person who can call in and bestow favors from unlikely sources, and whose discretion is assured. That person is Madeleine White, played like a smiling shark by Jodie Foster.
And so the maneuvering begins.
I really enjoyed watching this carefully-choreographed caper play out. It becomes clear that Detective Frazier is smarter than the average cop, and he figures out that something about Dalton Russell and what he's up to isn't what it seems to be. He also grasps that the enigmatic Ms. White and her actions on the bank owner's behalf indicate that the bank owner isn't exactly what he seems to be, either. One of the most enjoyable parts of the movie is watching Frazier, as played by Washington, figure out what the pieces of the puzzle are and how they fit together, try to work out the solution-- and then ponder how to put the solution into action without having it blow up in his face.
There aren't a lot of caper movies where I'm sitting and thinking, "dang, that was GOOD, I hope they do another one soon!" Most of the time, the ending is a foregone conclusion that you know almost as soon as the title plays and the interest, if any, is in seeing how well the cast and crew play out something that's been done a thousand times before. Not this time: "Inside Man" is like a successful conjuring trick. You know you were fooled, but you're in awe of the conjurer for pulling it off without giving it away. That's what "Inside Man" is like.
This is a movie that I think is going to appeal to anyone who likes caper movies, and it's very authentic and suspenseful entertainment. It also doesn't have a lot of violence in it and while suspenseful, it isn't terrifying-suspenseful. That means that I'd recommend this movie to people who find violence and terror a turn-off but who like suspense and trying to puzzle out a mystery. (There is some mildly offensive language used and a couple of scenes with people in their underwear, but no nudity.) This is one of the better, more original caper movies I've ever seen. Clive Owen is very watchable, Jodie Foster is cool and smart and self-possessed, fun to watch; but this is really Denzel Washington's movie, and he's in excellent form here. This is also one of the more accessible movies Spike Lee has made, with the greatest popular appeal; this is a great movie to start an examination of his work with.
I loved this movie and I could watch it over and over and over again.