Spike Lee's latest movie is perhaps his most mainstream fare to date—the plot hinges on a bank heist with a twist (what bank heist movie doesn't have a twist these days?) that promises to leave the audience guessing till the end. In reality, the only questions left hanging by the end of the movie are the result of bank vault door-sized holes in said plot. But, as in the movie itself, those bank vault doors aren't all that important. They're only a diversion. The interesting action is happening over to the side.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Clive Owen plays a bank robber who pulls of a heist that isn't quite what it seems
The plot, yes. Four bad guys, dressed like painters and led by Dalton Russell (Clive Owen), knock over Manhattan Trust. They lock the bank doors, wield guns, and take hostages—all of whom are forced to strip and put on matching painter's coveralls and masks. An NYPD officer on street patrol quickly figures out something's going down inside the bank—a 357 pointed in his face by a masked gunman did the trick—and the game is on. "Bad guys, here I come," says Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) as he and partner Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor) rush to the scene to serve as hostage negotiators.
Meanwhile, a rich white man is getting very uncomfortable in his posh digs at the news that one of his bank branches is being robbed. And not just any bank branch—the Manhattan Trust branch. It turns out that this Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer) has some incriminating evidence of the World War II-colluding-with-Nazis variety stored in a safe deposit box at that branch. Say it ain't so, Captain von Trapp!
Denzel Washington as Detective Keith Frazier and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Detective Bill Mitchell
Desperate to keep his history hidden, Case calls in the formidable Madeline White (Jodie Foster). Who is Madeline White? Good question. And I can't tell you, not because I don't want to spoil anything for you, but because I still don't know. Suffice it to say, she has the mayor of NYC in her pocket and can pull strings when strings need to be pulled—all for a nice fee of course. She makes her way to the bank where the police are engaged in the elaborate work of hostage negotiation—the strategic delivery of pizza up to this point—to keep an eye on things.
With White's entry on the scene, three agendas are in play. The first two are pretty straightforward: Arthur Case's desire to keep the contents of his safe deposit box a secret, and Detective Frazier's desire to wrap up this case in orderly fashion given that he's under professional scrutiny thanks to some missing money from a previous case. What's not so clear is the third agenda: What is it that the bank robbers really want? Because as time ticks by, it doesn't appear to be the money. And there's the rub.
Inside Man is serviceable as a Hollywood-style cops and robbers pic. It offers beautiful people doing heroic and/or dastardly things, and throws in some vaguely expected twists and turns. But the movie bristles with life in the moments when the rub is just that—the rubbing together of people from different races and classes, each person bringing their own set of experiences and expectations to the table that is New York City. This is one of Spike Lee's joints after all, and Inside Man is at its most interesting and entertaining when reflecting these tensions.
Jodie Foster as Madeline White, a power broker who brings an agenda to the negotiations
Perhaps to this end, Lee painstakingly underlines the different ethnic groups at play and you get dialogue like this when Frazier asks a hostage about his name:
"Is that Albanian?"
"It's Armenian."
"What's the difference?"
When an unarmed hostage is released, an armed cop shouts, "He's an Arab!" And you can hear the post-9/11 weariness in the man's voice when he replies "I'm a Sikh." That piece of information doesn't keep the police from roughly checking him for a bomb and taking off his turban, a sign of religious devotion for Sikhs. The man's subsequent diatribe against profiling is brought to an abrupt end when Frazier points out that he probably doesn't have any problem getting a cab.
Christopher Plummer as banking mogul Arthur Case, who has some revealing secrets hidden in the bank vault
The humor laced throughout Inside Man often throws the movie off-kilter—one moment the score and lighting present a heavy-handed drama, the next moment the audience is laughing out loud—but such levity buoys what could have been overly earnest or, worse, boring. Instead, the wit forges a connection between the audience and the characters, and it keeps us engaged long after we might have otherwise mentally checked out.
Washington exudes casual charm in this role, and Ejiofor, a rising star from England, as his partner, matches his gravitas. And despite being behind a mask for most of the movie, Owen does an admirable job as the bad guy playing a high stakes game of chess with Washington's detective Frazier. All of the actors flesh out their roles with a confidence that almost bluffs you into believing everything in the plot makes perfect sense. It doesn't. So ignore those gaping bank vault door-sized holes in the plot. (Or better yet, enjoy that feeling of superiority, as you are able to point out what doesn't add up.)
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Talk About It
Discussion starters
Given the final outcome of the bank heist, do you feel sympathetic to the robbers? Do you think their actions were justified? Why or why not?
What do you think ultimately motivated the bank robbers? Money or justice? Why?
Who is Madeline White? What do you think her business actually involves? What ethical standards, if any, does she possess?
What do you think drives Detective Frazier to get to the bottom of the bank heist even after his boss tells him to drop it? Do you think you would have continued to pursue the matter if you were in his shoes? Why or why not?
Several NYPD officers display racist attitudes, many of which seemed to stem from dangerous experiences. How might being a cop shape one's attitudes toward different races? How did you feel when the Sikh character wasn't allowed to keep his turban on?
The Family Corner
For parents to consider
Inside Man is rated R for language and some violent images. There's frequent profanity, including ethnic slurs and sexual innuendo. Intermittent violence includes beatings and a simulated execution that happen mostly off screen.
At his wits' end, Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) stands at the locked doors of a bank in the Big Apple. His patience has been tested. His nerves are on edge. At first, he assumed he was investigating an ambitious bank robbery, but things here just don't add up. Staring through the glass doors, he shouts at the invaders inside, "This ain't no bank robbery!"
Is it? Or isn't it? That's just one of the many puzzles presented to Frazier, his partner Bill (Serenity's Chiwetel Ejiofor), and the battalion of police piling up in the streets around the bank. Masked gunmen, led by a calculating self-proclaimed genius named Dalton Russell (Clive Owen), have sealed themselves inside with a cross-section of temperamental New Yorkers, and there's no telling how far the alleged robbers will go to get what they want. But what do they really want? Money? Why is the mastermind so cool and confident, even when the building is surrounded?
Making matters worse for the cops, there are puzzles outside of the bank as well—like the mayor's delivery of a mysterious professional named Madeline White (Jodie Foster), who won't explain her credentials or function, but promises that if the police let her into the bank, she will help resolve the situation. Then there's the head of the bank, Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer), who seems awfully agitated about having crooks snooping around in the safety deposit boxes.
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No matter how Inside Man turns out, it's clear early in the film who it is that walks away triumphant—director Spike Lee. Lee's energy, intelligent humor, flashy visual style, and affection for New York's multicultural population make him the perfect choice for the material. This may not be his most important film—I would argue that Do the Right Thing is still his masterpiece—but many viewers will agree that Inside Man is his funniest and most delightful. His actors are perfectly chosen, and their chemistry crackles and sparks as newcomer Russell Gewirtz's screenplay gives them some good old-fashioned wit to work with. After a season of heavy-handedly political films, grim social commentaries, and burdensome tales of human depravity, here's a reprieve: professional, engaging, smart, and thoughtful entertainment.
Some complain that the film portrays the bank robbers too sympathetically. But Lee uses them to highlight some notable ironies. The child of a hostage is playing a video game that is far more violent than anything related to the robbery. And as they draw near to the bank's valuables, their misbehavior pales compared to more heinous crimes. The film is anything but amoral; Gewirtz's story illustrates the old adage "Be sure your sins will find you out," even though he's more interested in graver sins than stealing.
Meanwhile, Lee uses this game of cops and robbers as a framework in which he can create memorable portrayals of New York spirit. As a result, the film comes off as a love note to the city, and to the people who are working together to rebuild and get along in spite of painful wounds, prejudice, and pressure.
Christian film critics seem generally impressed with Lee's efforts.
Steven D. Greydanus (Decent Films) says it's "smart … despite some gaping plot holes. And thanks to smart direction from Spike Lee, generally top-notch performances from a stellar cast, and pungent dialogue … it feels even smarter than it is."
While he finds Foster's character "underdeveloped both dramatically and conceptually," he says the filmmakers "more than make up for this with the authenticity and freshness they bring to their other characters and their interactions. … In contrast to the hyper-polarized race relations of last year's Crash, characters in this film talk about and express race and ethnicity in realistic and plausible ways."
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Christian Hamaker (Crosswalk) admits that the "morality is murky," but praises the film as "compelling, watchable … with strong ensemble acting." He also observes the film's meaningful exploration of multiple themes. "Inside Man raises ethical questions about wealth and power, and it examines the consequences of past sins. It asks whether we can wash away our guilt by building a life of outward respectability. These elements give extra heft to this solid entry in the heist genre."
David DiCerto (Catholic News Service) is also excited about it, calling it "arguably Lee's most mainstream movie to date. But thematically, it is not so much a departure as it is a change of focus—more story, less soapbox—as Lee continues to explore race and corruption, managing to comment on everything from racial profiling and stereotypes to greed and the harmful effects of video-game violence."
But Bob Hoose (Plugged In) bypasses all of this commentary and observation, concluding that the only thing the film "says" is that bad guys can get away with badness: "If a film, no matter how polished, says nothing better about life than 'Everybody's gonna grab their chunk and run,' does that make good drama? Are we satisfied by that? Should we be?"
Mainstream critics are applauding Lee's surprisingly agile maneuver from films about social concerns to polished genre entertainment.
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Bruce Barron
Inside Man
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Clive Owen plays a bank robber who pulls of a heist that isn't quite what it seemsDenzel Washington as Detective Keith Frazier and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Detective Bill MitchellJodie Foster as Madeline White, a power broker who brings an agenda to the negotiationsChristopher Plummer as banking mogul Arthur Case, who has some revealing secrets hidden in the bank vault