Great cast, great dialogue, great crime caper!

Rating: 10/10 (27 April 2007)

What a marvellous film Inside Man is! What I particularly loved about the film is the way it starts out as one sort of story. And over the course of the next two hours, it gradually turns into another. And then, if that weren't impressive enough, in the final act it pulls another rabbit out of its hat and transforms into a film of surprising depth and intelligence. Not to mention the fact it has an excellent ensemble cast, quotable dialogue and an enjoyably twisty screenplay that pulls off one great surprise after another.
The opening scene contains a monologue from Dalton Russell (the criminally underrated Clive Owen), who informs the audience that just recently he pulled off what he describes as the perfect bank robbery. This is actually my favourite scene in the whole film. The choice of dialogue and the way Owen delivers it is so dead on that you're convinced right away Dalton is the master criminal he makes himself out to be.
Then the action takes off. Four people, including Dalton, disguised as painters seize control of a NY bank. Initially it resembles the type of robbery you've seen in about a hundred other heist movies. But Inside Man isn't your standard heist movie!
What starts out as a simple robbery becomes much more than that. It eventually evolves into a hostage situation. And an even more murkier element surfaces involving Christopher Plummer's shady bank owner. All the while the bank is surrounded by NYPD's finest, SWAT teams, news reporters, and as an added bonus, Jodie Foster's delightfully buoyant "fixer". She fixes things that need fixing!
On top of the case are Detectives Keith Frazier and Bill Mitchell (an inspired match of Denzel Washington and Chiwetel Ejiofor). As the hours tick away, its up to them to safeguard the lives of the hostages, coordinate with Willem Dafoe's SWAT team leader, and basically find out what the hell's going on in that bank.
I haven't enjoyed a crime caper this much since Collateral. Everything about Spike Lee's gritty thriller fires on all cylinders. Not simply because it delivers as a suspense ride. But it has style. Witty asides. And a wonderful cast of characters that transform Inside Man into a modern day masterpiece.
Spike Lee uses an unusual method of balancing two stories. The first is the hostage situation. While simultaneously addressing the aftermath of events with the hostages freed and being interrogated. Now in that circumstance, we know beforehand that somehow those hostages will be freed. But instead of making Inside Man anticlimactic, it makes the film that all the more fascinating and complex. The interrogation scenes are surprisingly hilarious too, thanks to Spike Lee's quirky camera angles, the endearingly eclectic hostages, and Denzel Washington's considerable skills as a comic performer.
Lee never allows things to get too heavy. There's a thread of humour that weaves all the way through the film. Like the Sikh hostage mistaken for an Arab. It's tough being a Sikh in these post 9/11 times he moans. But he gets great cab rides!
Lee also makes sure all the cast members are given their moment in the spotlight. Except maybe for Willem Dafoe's character. He gets a bit shortchanged really because he's not allowed to flesh out his persona the way the others are. And towards the end, he gets forgotten about. Inside Man's only flaw.
But as for everyone else, they're all superb. Washington has never been better. Throwing out witty one-liners at every turn, but maintaining his professionalism, he's a charismatic hero. Owen is excellent as always, wonderfully sinister, and as the film progresses, surprisingly ambiguous too.
Christopher Plummer delivers a beautifully nuanced, modulated performance that swings between paternal and concerned, to self-serving and deceitful. He has a dirty little secret that Dalton's bank robbery threatens to expose.
But the most interesting character is Jodie Foster's special "fixer" Madeleine White. Although a mysterious woman with unclear motivations, Foster's enthusiasm sells the character. She walks around the city like she owns it. She's on a first name basis with the Mayor. She talks terms with all the skills of an Ivy League girl. She acts like she has all the answers, and expects to be capitulated to. Even in hostage situations. Its a delightfully exuberant performance on her part. Foster hasn't inhabited a role so well since Clarice Starling. She's clearly having a great deal of fun, and her acting is so much better here than her somewhat neurotic performance in Flightplan.
As things wrap up, Inside Man delivers a whopper of a grand finale. A genuine left-field turn that left my head spinning. An ending that's clever, satisfying and ultimately very rewarding. Check out Inside Man. Its wonderfully slick, very engrossing and kept in perspective by Spike Lee's marvellous direction.
Superb stuff!