With an all star cast and an original script, “Inside Man” had every reason to be a knock-your-socks-off flick in a season of less than stellar releases.

Denzel Washington stars as NYPD hostage negotiator Detective Keith Frazier called to a bank heist, his first as the lead negotiator. All eyes are on Frazier as he attempts to resolve the situation as quickly and painlessly as possible, but the thief (Clive Owen) has a very specific plan to confuse the cops as much as possible. Jodie Foster plays corporate power player Madeline White who is hired by the owner of the bank (Christopher Plummer) to act as his own personal negotiator in the situation. He has some very sensitive documents and a wealth of rare gems inside the bank that must be protected at all costs. White is a woman with friends in high places and thinks nothing of requesting a private meeting with the thief.

As the day fades into night, Frazier begins to suspect that this heist is different from any other New York has ever seen and begins to question whether everything is as it seems. White’s appearance on the scene doesn’t help ease his suspicions either.

Spike Lee directs this all star cast which also features Willem Dafoe as the police captain.

There are a lot of good things going on in this film: great acting, a unique idea, interesting post-heist debriefing interviews intertwined with the action of the film. But...(and there’s always a but isn’t there?) I felt like they invested all of their energy into the first 110 minutes of this 130 minute film and lost steam at the end. It’s as if Lee and company had just finished watching “Ocean’s Eleven” when they shot the conclusion of the film. Now, I loved “Ocean’s Eleven,” don’t get me wrong, but when there are so many angles they could take on an original script, why fall back on what’s already been done?

Also, I felt the film spent a good deal of time investing its audience in a variety of characters who never get closure. This film is a much more mentally focused action film than most heist movies you’ll see, but if your going to make a movie over two hours long, and you want to get into the human aspect behind a bank robbery, why not expound on the reason for the heist in the first place? It made me feel like I was missing a piece of the puzzle when I left the theater. There were a number of conclusions I might come to based on what I saw, but what was the point? Perhaps Lee is setting himself up for a sequel, who knows.

***

login to post comments