The Heist, The Hostages & Some Dark Secrets

Rating: 8/10 (16 April 2018)

"Inside Man" is a routine bank heist movie that's been made more interesting by the inclusion of a succession of entertaining twists, a collection of colourful characters and a surprising motive for the crime. Predictably, for a Spike Lee "joint", it also makes some political points about racial profiling, disrespecting religious beliefs and the damaging influences that violent video games can have on impressionable children. These issues are all touched on with great clarity but also without ever getting heavy-handed, disrupting the pace of the action or jarring with the regular moments of humour that add greatly to the enjoyment of watching this fine film.
After a gang of four masked men wearing shades and dressed in painters' overalls invade a Wall Street bank and take its customers and staff as hostages, NYPD Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) is given responsibility for dealing with the crisis. The highly experienced hostage negotiator immediately bases himself in a Mobile Command Vehicle outside the Manhattan Trust and takes charge of communicating with gang-leader, Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) and listening to his demands.
The bank's founder, Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer) is soon informed about the on-going heist and calls in a power broker called Madeleine White (Jodie Foster) because he's anxious to avoid the contents of his safe deposit box being stolen or becoming known to anybody else. White, who's well-recognised for her efficiency and discretion, uses her considerable power to go over Frazier's head and arrange a meeting with Russell in what turns out to be just one of a number of instances that wrong-foot the increasingly frustrated negotiator.
When a point is reached where it appears that the only option left is to storm the bank, Russell, who'd listened-in to the planning of the action by courtesy of some strategically-placed listening devices, arranges for all the hostages to be released. However, as he'd compelled them all to wear overalls, shades and masks that were identical to those worn by the robbers, Frazier and his colleagues are left with the huge and difficult job of interviewing more than fifty people to try to determine which of them were genuine and which were not. The events that follow, then illustrate Russell's considerable skill as a criminal mastermind and Frazier's determination to pursue his investigations to their conclusion despite being ordered not to by his superiors.
The high quality cast does a great job of making "Inside Man" a riveting thriller with Denzel Washington and Clive Owen both outstanding in their roles. Interestingly, the actions of the main characters (played by Washington, Owen, Plummer and Foster) all involve dark secrets and dubious actions which play neatly into the movie's theme about the ubiquity of corruption and its key role in the acquisition of wealth and power.