A good crime film will always find appeal for both mainstream audiences and critics. Steven Soderbergh’s extremely successful Ocean’s 11 reminded everyone that a crime film can be fun and intelligent. Guy Ritchie made his career from essentially one film, but it happened to be a genre-breaking crime film. There has been a recent resurgence of crime films, but as is usually the case, with every good film of a certain type there will be many imitations that are painful to watch.
Though Spike Lee’s latest film, Inside Man, may neither revolutionize the crime film genre, nor come at a time when there hadn’t been a good film of this type in several years, it is nevertheless a very entertaining, cool and sharp movie. Spike Lee, for perhaps his most audience-friendly movie, has proven his ease and confidence as a director in appealing to a large demographic, but he didn’t simplify, and he didn’t sell out.
The story begins with Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) speaking directly to the viewers, foretelling the robbery that he is about to mastermind. The music starts, the credit sequence is overlaid onto some interesting New York scenes, close ups of statues, all to the tune of Indian (from India) pop music. The first steps to the bank robbery begin right away, as Dalton and three colleagues enter the bank, which has that pseudo-roman architecture that the important banks usually have, dressed as painters. Very quickly they take control of the bank, locking the doors, throwing gas grenades to confuse and frighten, and disabling the cameras. A passing police officer notices smoke coming from the bank, and makes a radio call when he realizes the doors are locked. A masked man steps out of the bank, and with a foreign accent threatens that he has hostages, and if any police approach the entrance to the bank, he will begin killing those hostages.
We are then introduced to Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) chatting with his colleague Detective Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Keith has a girlfriend in the police department, whom he loves very much, but has been avoiding marriage questions because of his financial problems. The scene is brief, but warmly sets up the two characters, even though Chiwetel’s character will have little to do for the rest of the film. The captain interrupts their conversation, telling them to handle the situation at the bank since the main hostage negotiator is unavailable.
What follows is a game of patience between Keith Frazier on the outside of the bank, managing the police operations (with many obstacles), and Dalton Russell on the inside, who has clearly thought through his meticulous plan to bring it to perfection. This is the first film to be made from a Russell Gewirtz script, and I would call it a success. There are some small holes in the plot, and some aspects that may be unbelievable, but I didn’t notice any of these things while I was watching the film itself, since it moves at such a smooth and confident pace. Mostly, there are several original ideas in how the bank robbery is done and how the hostages are treated, as well as how Keith Frazier and some of the police officers handle the situation, and this makes the story and the action very interesting and surprising.
Although Inside Man is Spike Lee’s mainstream entertainment film, he still takes the time to induce a little art, wit, and social commentary that are characteristic of his earlier films. Spike Lee’s touches in this film, however, are presented subtly and are more like a spicy seasoning rather than the main course. Without Spike Lee’s direction, the film would have been quite bland, I think.
Two apparently disconnected conversations that touch on racial issues draw a lovely parallel between Dalton Russell and Keith Frazier. Both men are responsible for something very important: Dalton wants his plan to succeed, and Keith wants to stop him without losing lives. Both of them play cool, but deep inside they are nervous. A hostage situation is one big waiting game as far as they’re concerned, but the losses can be tremendous. One conversation finds Dalton talking to a boy about his videogame (which looks like the very famous Grand Theft Auto video games), and the other is when Keith, at the prelude to the storm, is speaking with a police sergeant about unrelated matters. In Dalton’s case we are given a hint of tenderness, and despite his ferocity until that point, we begin to like him. In Keith’s case, we realize that as cool as he was, as able as he seemed to handle the situation, he was afraid. He was afraid for the hostages kept prisoner inside the bank.
Both the characters of Dalton and Keith are given nearly equal weight, and both Clive Owen and Denzel Washington have provided excellent performances. Clive Owen is so cool and rough at the same time; he’s the ideal bad boy. This is the third must-see film for Clive Owen fans (the other two being Closer, which is a must-see for anyone, I would say, and Sin City). Denzel is incredibly charming and once again he has brought the best of his abilities as a long-time collaborator of Spike Lee.
Jodie Foster did a nice job with what she was given, but I wish she would appear in better roles than she had in the past few years (with the exception of A Very Long Engagement, also known as Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles). With the role she had in Inside Man, we can add one other disappointment, as this was perhaps the most badly-placed character in the film. The rest of the supporting cast gave good performances, but it is unfortunate that Chiwetel Ejiofor and Willem Dafoe did not have much to do, as they are both terrific actors. My friend Karelle loves Willem Dafoe, and she was so upset that I watched this film without her, but I didn’t know! This was Cassandra Freeman’s first feature film performance, as Keith’s girlfriend, and she did a nice job as a young and sexy police officer! Finally, Christopher Plummer takes a pleasant approach to the character of Arthur Case, with a mixture of dignified confusion and worrying in playing the owner of the bank.
Inside Man was a very enjoyable film, which provided a nice mixture of different elements. It kind of has something for everyone, and though this may have kept it from being a truly memorable film, it was still well thought out and crafted: a very entertaining, cool and sharp movie.
