Spike Lee's newest movie, "Inside Man" starts off deceptively simple: a group of thieves infiltrate a New York bank, take hostages and hold themselves up in the basement offices. It sounds like every other heist movie ever made. There's a catch, though: for as smart as the "good"guys are, the "bad"guys are just as clever.
I don't want to spoil the movie by detailing just how clever Dalton Russell (Clive Owen, "Closer") is but I do want to say it is refreshing to see a movie that has its central plan nailed down flawlessly. It's not very often that we believe the characters on screen have thought through their actions like real people. Russell is one of those people. He has calculated, planned and undoubtedly rehearsed the entire operation to perfection. Everything we, the audience, and the cops (including Denzel Washington's Detective Keith Frazier) think of, Russell has not only thought of, but also planned a counter-move against. It's amazing, really.
"Inside Man" isn't a typical Hollywood picture. It doesn't end the way most heist movies conclude. It brings in a Hollywood star (Jodie Foster, "Flightplan") and then unceremoniously drops her for large chunks of the action. It dangles plot threads that, ultimately, go nowhere and are never resolved. And it brings ugly slurs to light.
Call me super sensitive, but the scene in which an Arab hostage is let go, causing the police to converge and rough him up like he was a bad guy is just disgusting. I understand in our post-9/11 world that there are certain assumptions we all carry with us. I also understand this drama takes place in New York City. Both of those things allow me to rationalize the use of slurs like "raghead" away. But in a movie that is surprisingly not racist, why writer Russell Gewirtz had to include that short scene (and the subsequent harassment by Frazier) is beyond me.
While Russell is holed up in the bank with 50 or so hostages and Frazier is outside trying to talk him out, a third group becomes interested in the situation: Christopher Plummer's Arthur Chase ("The Sound of Music"), chairman of the bank's board and the aforementioned Foster as Madeline White. Chase hires White to recover something in a safe deposit box in the bank vault, something she is assured poses to harm to anybody except Chase.
Is Chase lying to her? Is this the truth? Really, Madeline never seems to care (until the end, that is); instead, she views this as another job to do. Interestingly, we never find out anything else about her job. Yes, we know she does sensitive work for some high profile clients. She makes a mention of working with a Bin Laden family member. But it's never said what her job title is specifically. From the looks of her apartment or office, she does quite well in whatever it is she does.
While the entire movie does add up to a nice, neat package, a couple points stick out for me.
- It's a trifle hypocritical of Russell to disapprove of a child's Playstation Portable video game in which people get brutually murdered when he himself has taken people hostage and threatened to kill them.
- The entire subplot with Frazier's girlfriend and her brother is mentioned often enough but has no payoff in the end. There's nothing there. If the entire idea was to try to make Frazier a three dimensional person, I accept it. But it just seems there are an awful lot of references to them for just this little purpose.
- The scene in which Russell forces the hostages out of their clothes caught my attention in that it features predominantly the females in various states of undress. Personally, if you're going to feature a scene like this, at least make it equal opportunity humiliation
- Why in the world do you get an Oscar-caliber actress like Jodie Foster to be part of your film if she is going to be relegated to no more than a handful of scenes? Madeline White is all but forgotten for at least half of the movie, if not more. Either beef up her part or find a different actress to play the part. That being said, I love her long sparring sessions with Frazier, specifically the long shot immediately after she exits the bank.
- Most importantly, how does Russell know what is inside the safe deposit box? I have my assumption based on one of the last scenes, but I don't believe it was ever truly mentioned.
One of more interesting ideas in "Inside Man" is the fact that none of these people (except Frazier's partner and Willem Dafoe's Captain Darius) are really good people. The "good" guys aren't all that good and the "bad" guys aren't completely devious. Additionally, those "good" guys are all African American while the "bad" guys are played by white actors. Is that a coincidence or a deliberate casting move? An argument can be made that this was done in lieu of having "Inside Man" become a racially charged picture like "Jungle Fever" or "Do the Right Thing". It should be noted, too, that Spike Lee scripted those other pictures; he did not receive writing credit for this one.