Director: Spike Lee
Writer: Russell Gewirtz
Starring: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Don’t tell anybody else, but Inside Man is about a lot more than a bank robbery that turns into a hostage situation. That may be the premise, but the plot has a lot more going on. Unfortunately, you don’t realize this until well after the action has started.
The film starts off pretty fast. After an opening monologue from Dalton Russell (Clive Owen)—a common way to start films these days—the film jumps right into the bank robbery. Russell walks into a bank, disables the security cameras, and, with a few assistants, subdues everyone in the bank at gunpoint. Before long, police arrive on the scene. We meet Detective Keith Fraizier (Denzel Washington), a cop with domestic problems assigned as the hostage negotiator to the bank case. For a while, the movie looks like it’s going to be a straightforward hostage flick. Then the bank’s owner (Christopher Plummer) hires Madeline White (Jodie Foster), a cocky entrepreneur who “solves problems” to keep hidden the secrets of his safety deposit box in the bank under siege. Those secrets are the meat of the movie.
The problem is that there is a huge chunk of the movie where the plot progresses very slowly. In the hostage situation Frazier is stalling for time, and so the film stalls. It’s not until Frazier again becomes proactive that the film becomes interesting. It’s not that the film gets boring, but a number of plot threads are created that go nowhere fast and, for a short while, the film drags its feet.
Perhaps a few scenes could have been cut in the second act, though they are all well done. For example, there’s a wonderful scene that was blatantly extraneous in which Russell talks to a boy he’s taken hostage about violent video games. The acting is solid on both parts and it is well-written, but, aside from the character development already present, the scene doesn’t add anything to the film as a whole.
Director Spike Lee and writer Russell Gewirtz can be forgiven though. This was Lee’s first commercial film and Gewirtz’s first screenplay. Considering this, the film they produced was very good. While the film lags in the second act, the revelations in the third more than make up for it. Gewirtz wrote a complex film and Lee was able to control it. Had any number of tiny roles malfunctioned, including the extras, the film would have collapsed in upon itself. As it stands, Lee handled Inside Man with a care few directors could manage. There are shots laid out by cinematographer Matthew Libatique that obviously come from independent filmmaking which alternately add and detract flavor from the film, but the way Spike Lee handles his cast is astounding.
The performances are top notch. If there is any one reason to see Inside Man, it is the acting. Clive Owen is at the top of his game, bring the same calculated stoicism he showed in Sin City to Dalton Russell. Jodie Foster proves that she can be a good actress if she’s acting in a good film, giving Madeline White a cocky attitude that’s actually believable. And a good performance is practically expected from Denzel Washington. What really makes the film great though are all the tiny little roles, the no-name roles with performances every bit as good as the ’stars’. Even the extras act their hearts out. So when the film slows down, the acting keeps it from getting boring.
Inside Man is thoroughly entertaining. It’s an intense thriller with a complex plot. The only low point is in the second act, and even that lull makes sense in the context of the film. Spike Lee’s first commercial venture is well worth your ticket money.
Casey Cosker lives, reads, writes, and occasionally studies at Pratt Institute in New York City. He spends his free time and money buying comic books and novels he can’t afford. He has been a self-proclaimed geek for several months now, and has no intention of changing his ways. He also has a hat.