“Inside Man” opens with Dalton Russell (Owen) staring into the camera explaining who he is, what he’s doing, and why he’s doing it. He dangles the question of where he is over our heads, leaving the audience with something to think about as the story unfolds.
From that opening we leap into the action as armed robbers dressed in painting gear take over a bank and hold everyone inside, all 40 or 50 people including the bank employees, hostage. The hostages are forced to strip and given matching painters outfits, masks and sunglasses to wear. It’s a very smart move and clearly shows how much planning went into the heist. It also serves to show the intelligence of the group’s leader.
New York City’s finest spring into action, blocking off streets, placing snipers on nearby roofs and calling into play their hostage negotiators. In this case it’s a green behind the ears detective named Keith Frazier (Washington) and his partner Detective Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor).
Frazier’s itching for a high profile case and a promotion in rank, but is facing an internal investigation for theft. Frazier’s a seasoned police officer but, unless I’m interpreting it wrong, hasn’t actually been in the lead role as a negotiator on many cases. How a guy who apparently doesn’t have many hostage negotiations under his belt could possibly expect to receive a raise in rank isn’t really explained and is one of the film’s more confusing plot holes.
Russell and Frazier begin the standard well-choreographed dance between negotiator and bank robber until it dawns on Frazier there’s nothing normal about this bank robbery. In a strange little twist, Madeline White (Jodie Foster), a mysterious power broker, inserts herself into the situation with offers to expedite a conclusion to the robbery. Madeline was hired by the bank’s founder and CEO (Christopher Plummer) to intercede on his behalf and to do whatever it takes to get the armed men to leave. White’s appearance and offer to help makes Frazier absolutely certain his intuition is correct. Frazier is now sure stealing the contents of the bank’s safe isn’t the robbers’ primary objective.
There are more than a couple plot holes, the major twist doesn’t make any sense, and the ending winds up way too tidy considering all the build up. Nevertheless “Inside Man” is a good film. Not great, and not Lee’s best work, but a decent enough story with terrific acting from its A-list cast.
Regardless of the fact this is a bigger studio project than he normally undertakes, “Inside Man” is unmistakably a Spike Lee Joint. The New York filmmaker’s distinctive artistic voice is clearly evident in every frame of the film. Spike Lee and rookie screenwriter Russell Gewirtz smoothly pull off inserting pointed commentary on ethnic stereotypes, as typical of a Spike Lee film. It’s aggressive, but not overly intrusive.
“Inside Man” is sprinkled throughout with quick rabbit-punch interactions between characters of different ethnic backgrounds. Lee and Gewirtz remove the PC-restraints from characters and let them have a go at each other in prickly exchanges of dialogue where no ethnic group is considered off limits.
“Inside Man” distances itself from other heist movies because it doesn’t stick with the normal heist movie formula. Lee sees the bank robbery setting as an outlet for social commentary, including elements in “Inside Man” we’re not likely to see in many other films of its ilk. There’s the freed Sikh hostage who has his turban ripped off and becomes agitated at his treatment by the police after being referred to as an Arab. Lee also addresses the influence of video games and the media on America’s youth by way of a scene in which one of the hostages, a young African American boy, shares pizza with the lead bank robber and shows him how to play an ultra-violent game promoting the gangsta lifestyle. The kid thinks it’s messed up to be released – he wants to stay locked in the bank – and empathizes with the bank robber which prompts the question, “What exactly are we teaching kids these days?”
Lee stirs the cultural melting pot with his racially mixed cast of characters, authentically reflecting the ethnic make-up of America in general and New York in particular. Much of the dialogue and situations are specific to New York and, under Lee’s direction, the city becomes a living, breathing character and not just the setting for this hostage drama to play out.
“Inside Man” is never quite what you expect it to be. It’s a heist film, that’s a given, but one that depends more on intense moments of dialogue between its characters rather than its action sequences. Rookie screenwriter Gewirtz’ crafty script and Lee’s trademark style complement each other well, making “Inside Man” one of the better heist films of the last decade.
Grade: B
