So far one of 2006's best...

Rating: 9/10 (29 March 2006)

Show of hands - who here loves heist movies where thieves are doing their very best to pull off the perfect robbery? Well good news - Inside Man is one of the best of the genre to come along in quite some time.
What I love most about the movie is the air of mystery that surrounds it and its characters for the entire runtime. Nobody's true motivations are immediately revealed, and it's our job to follow along as everything plays out. And I recommend that as you follow along you pay careful attention to all the characters from the very beginning. You could start to get the hostages and bank robbers confused. But let's get back to our mysterious main characters...
You've got Clive Owen - the calm and collected ringleader who has strategically planned this robbery to the smallest detail. He really doesn't seem to be that bad of a guy at heart. He doesn't want to hurt anybody, but he has a job to do and he has to make sure everyone realizes that he's not messing around. He simply must establish that they're not smarter than he is. Who is he and exactly what is his motivation?
Then there's Denzel Washington. He's a newly promoted detective whose girlfriend is ready for a ring, but at the moment he has a few hostages in the bank that concern him. But how innocent is he? He's currently surrounded by a corruption scandal involving a missing $140,000 and this could play to his disadvantage regardless of whether he's innocent or not.
And what on earth is up with Jodie Foster and her uppity little self? Ever a total wainch (it's a Southern term my friends and I invented, you probably get the gist), she is obviously very skilled in hitting guys where it hurts, and no, I don't mean the pocketbook. She's a mysterious power broker who knows how to keep her "clients" happy.
Her most recent client is Christopher Plummer who just so happens to own the bank that is being robbed. He is really interested in only one thing - the contents of a particular safety deposit box. He wants Jodie to retrieve these contents or make sure they're destroyed. What exactly is he trying to hide?
Don't go into the movie looking for a rapid fire action thriller. Inside Man's pace is more deliberate, allowing for gradual character and story development. That's a hard thing to find in a two hour movie these days, but here's an example of how to pull it off. The dialogue is smart and funny, the characters demonstrate believable chemistry, and the script is cleverly written. There may not be any plot twists of Sixth Sense proportions, but it keeps you guessing and manages to serve up a couple of surprises along the way.
To say any more would be a risk of revealing too much, so just go enjoy the movie. But you need to be prepared to immerse yourself for a full two hours. If you're even the slightest fan of heist thrillers then check out Inside Man and find out exactly why "respect is the ultimate currency."