From left: Detective Frazier (Denzel Washington) and clever bank robber (Clive Owen) face off in a scene from the movie 'Inside Man'. - CONTRIBUTED
NEW YORK (AP):
GLOSSY AND gleefully mainstream, Inside Man is the least Spike Lee-ish Spike Lee Joint ever, and his best film since 2002's 25th Hour which, come to think of it, was also a departure for him in terms of substance.
You wouldn't even know you were in Lee's hands were it not for the typically intrusive, horn-heavy score from his favourite composer, Terence Blanchard, and the frank talk about race that has been his signature for the last 20 years.
Inside Man, about a meticulously planned robbery at a lower Manhattan bank, is the first produced script from Russell Gewirtz. Lee has taken Gewirtz's words and turned out a superbly cast, strongly acted action thriller that's suspenseful but never takes itself too seriously, thanks to a darkly funny undercurrent that runs through it.
PLOT HOLES
Yes, the ending takes too long and it's got some plot holes, but Inside Man is such a wholly engrossing escape that even if you do notice these shortcomings, you won't mind.
Denzel Washington re-teams with Lee following Mo' Better Blues, He Got Game and his Oscar-nominated starring role in Malcolm X as longtime NYPD Detective Keith Frazier, who's called in to negotiate when a band of thieves bursts into a bank and takes about 50 customers and employees hostage.
Led by smooth, arrogant mastermind Dalton Russell (Clive Owen, who can make any bad guy sexy) they swiftly shuttle everyone downstairs and scoop up their keys and cell phones, brutally punishing those who disobey with dreams of playing the hero.
SKILFULLY PACED GAME
From there it's a skilfully paced game of back-and-forth, as Frazier and his partner, Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor), try to outsmart Russell with the help of the no-nonsense tactical leader (Willem Dafoe, didn't we tell you it was a great cast?) and are thwarted every time.
By now, Lee clearly knows how to bring out the best in Washington, allowing him to be charming and commanding at the same time. Frazier's exchanges with the equally confident Russell are some of the film's most thrilling, and the most unexpectedly funny.
But then another wrinkle presents itself in the form of Madeline White (Jodie Foster), who has the vague occupation of functioning as a fixer for the wealthy and powerful.
DIVERSE CROSS-SECTION
Throwing together such a diverse cross-section of humanity, both inside and outside the bank, raises issues of race and class which couldn't be more relevant. Frazier interrogates a suspect, finds out he's Armenian, confuses him with being Albanian and asks, "What's the difference?"
And one of the hostages, tossed by his captors into the street to deliver a message to police, immediately becomes a suspect by virtue of the turban on his head.
"He's an Arab!" one SWAT officer yells out in fear.
"I'm a Sikh," he explains.
Finding out what's the difference, and doing so with vibrant dialogue and unsettling humour, is what makes this a Spike Lee Joint after all.
Inside Man, a Universal Pictures release, runs 129 minutes. Three stars out of four.
