A film that cheats itself of greatness

Rating: 7/10 (7 April 2006)

STAR RATING: ***** The Works **** Just Misses the Mark *** That Little Bit In Between ** Lagging Behind * The Pits
A group of people in plasterers uniforms walk into a busy New York City bank, produce guns and bundle everyone together downstairs. A tense hostage situation has soon developed and Detective Frazier (Denzel Washington) is in charge of keeping everything under control. But the raiders, lead by the devious, condescending Russell Dalton (Clive Owen) aren't making their demands very clear and after a while it seems to all be about something a little more than money.
This is sort of an unusual film for Spike Lee to make, and he's done a bit of a Devil's Advocate by using the brilliant Denzel Washington and the rather wooden Clive Owen as co-stars. But Washington, Jodie Foster (although a bit too smug in what is a rather small role), Christopher Plummer and, yes, even would you believe, Owen are all on pretty good form here, delivering great versions of the sort of performances they do best. Plus the film is distinctively Spike Lee all the way, with his trademark use of the camera and delivery style. The film also has a really engrossing story to it, with some great dialogue and soforth.
But those are it's good points. The bad news is that it's badly paced, badly edited and as a result the story ends up dragging on a little and becoming a little boring. Some of the plot is badly tied up and doesn't even make sense by the end. As a few other reviewers have said, it's a film that may have tried to be a bit too smart for it's own good and cheated itself of greatness as a result. ***