Instant classic

Rating: 6/10 (1 April 2006)

The fact that this movie was directed (note: NOT written) by Spike Lee lead a lot of people to believe that "Inside Man" was really a subliminal comment on racial issues. Yes, there are characters using politically incorrect terms here and a major plot point even involves the exploitation of Jews during the holocaust. Still, "Inside Man" is foremost a classic heist movie and a very good one at that.
Spike Lee takes his time to tell this story. Like so many recent motion pictures "Inside Man" is almost of epic proportions, yet at 130 minutes running time it still manages never to get boring. It sucks you right in from the great opening monologue delivered by Clive Owen. Lee's direction is old-fashioned and classy. The cast is superb, although it's a pity that Willem Dafoe plays a rather bland character and isn't given more opportunity to show his talent here.
Newcomer Russell Gewirtz wrote a fantastic screenplay, that's extremely well crafted and very original. A lot of background information is left in the dark, which probably frustrated some viewers, but actually we don't need to know more facts than the ones we are being given in the movie. Granted, some parts of the movie are rather hard to believe, but the story never reaches the point of absolute impossibility. Another reviewer wrote that the movie's main flaw is that it refuses to choose between realism and "Ocean's Eleven"-style fantasy. I think that's a good way to put it, but the makers could have gone way farther over the top. To me the movie found the perfect balance between realism and fantasy to be thrilling and plausible at the same time.
"Inside Man" is already a classic and definitely among Spike Lee's best movies. Hopefully it will be remembered along with genre cornerstones such as "Dog Day Afternoon".