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Cinema - Inside
Man
Inside Man is a bank heist movie
by the New York director Spike Lee. Its four principal actors
are Clive Owen, who plays the criminal mastermind who robs
a bank then takes 50 hostages who he threatens to kill unless
he escorted out of the place; Denzel Washington, who plays
the cop who is asked to sort out the mess; Christopher Plummer
as the bank owner with a secret to hide; and Jodie Foster
as the power broker Plummer hires to sort out everything out.
It is a fast-moving thriller full of twists, McGuffins and
playful irrelevant interludes. It has been said to be Lee’s
best film for a decade.
What makes Inside Man a good film, apart from fine
performances from its principal cast, is that you never quite
know what is going on. Nobody seems to be doing what is in
their best interests. Why doesn’t Owen just take the
money and run? What exactly is in the safe deposit box he
seems most interested in? What does Plummer have to hide?
And exactly who is Jodie Foster? While the movie carries a
number of Spike Lee’s trademark devices and themes,
you wouldn’t immediately recognise it as one of his
films: it’s too smooth, too streamlined, and, well,
too Hollywood. Not that it’s perfect: like Hitchcock’s
best thrillers, there are holes in the plot of you scratch
the surface. Like Hitchcock’s films, though, you end
up liking it enough to overlook them. DL |
