Inside Man is a welcome releif, being a whole lot better than it looks. The movie shows us that the words "thiller" and "good" are not necessarily mutualy exclusive. It's certainly not a masterpiece, but it does have something to say, it says it well, and it's a lot of fun.
I am not as familier as I should be with the work of Spike Lee, having seen only three of his films, "Do the Right Thing", "Malcolm X" and "Bamboozled" (I found the first to be good but overrated and the last two to be excellent). "Inside Man" is not as relelentless didactic as those films, it's not as polical either, but more generally philosophical. Many of Lee's movies involve race relations and this is no exception, but he integrates the racial themes into a larger story and less specific idea.
The story, as you know from the trailer, involves "the perfect bank robbery." Clive Owen plays Daltran Russell, the head of a leage of proffesional crooks who enter a bank dressed as painter and hold everyone hostage. Denzel Washington is called in as Dective Keith Frazeier, a hostage negoitiator who relizes that something very fishy is going on. Adding to his headaches is Madeline White (Jodie Foster), who is sent by Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer), the billionaire who owns the bank to make sure that his "interests" are protected.
An underlying theme in the film is how pretty much everyone (well, except for Madeline, who takes advantage of everyone equally) has some kind of racial preduce in general that is often stopped in the particular. For example, Sergent Collins (Victor Colicchio), who discovers the bank robbery, throws the n-word around and think that most blacks are dangerous, but has no problem working with Frazier- after all, he's a fellow policeman.
The performaces are all strong, especially by Jodie Foster, who shows why she is probably the world's greatest American actress. A lot of what happens is genananly unexpected without feeling cheap or manipulated. The photography is excellent, this an example of appropriate use of a handheld camera. Lee also includes some interesting ideas about the nature of corruption in society- frankly, I thought this was a deeper film about that topic than "Syrania". I can't give the movie more than three stars because it's kind of lightweight- it doesn't really stay with you like a great movie would. But don't let that stop you. If every Hollywood thriller were as good as this, the genre would have a lot more respect.
Inside Man (2006)