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Lee brings his filmmaking expertise to a major picture
BY L. KENT WOLGAMOTT / Lincoln Journal Star
Friday, Mar 24, 2006 - 12:01:29 am CST

There are lots of big names associated with “Inside Man,” including Oscar winners Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster, newly established star Clive Owen and great character actors Willem Dafoe and Christopher Plummer.

Those names should be enough to kick start the box office for this crime thriller — and their performances are universally strong

But the key names associated with the film are writer Russell Gewirtz, whose first screenplay takes a cliched setup and finds new twists and a contemporary relevance in its familiar theme, and director Spike Lee, who has made his first mainstream picture without sacrificing the values he brings to the cinema.

The movie opens with a bank heist in which four baddies, led by Owen’s Dalton Russell, take over a Manhattan bank. But they’re far more clever than the usual movie bank robbers. Blinding the security cameras with bright lights, the thieves herd the bank employees and customers away from the main floor, force them to strip, then make them dress in identical coveralls and masks.

That, of course, means when the time comes the cops won’t be able to tell the difference between the bad guys and the innocent hostages. Then they start on a quest for something very special. This is a bank robbery unlike any other seen on screen.

With hostages comes a hostage negotiator. He’s Keith Frazier (Washington), who is under suspicion of corruption but knows his business. With partner Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejoifor) in tow, Frazier hits the crime scene and immediately runs afoul of Capt. John Darius (Dafoe), the officer in charge of the Emergency Services Unit that has surrounded the bank.

Meanwhile, bank owner Arthur Case (Plummer) is very concerned about the robbery. Not so much about the people inside or losing millions in cash. Rather, he’s got a secret stashed in a safe deposit box and he has to protect it. To do so, he hires a fixer. She’s Madeline White (Foster), who uses her influence with the mayor to strong-arm Frazier — and offer him an out from the corruption charges.

As the siege continues, the ultra-cool Russell seems to know every move Frazier and the cops are going to make before they make it. And Frazier eventually figures out he’s not dealing with an ordinary bank robbery.

To say any more would give away too much of Gewirtz’s story. And it is to the credit of the film’s marketers that all its secrets aren’t spilled in the trailers.

“Inside Man” is much more than a trickily plotted thriller. The movie actually has characters that are developed and things to say about today’s society beyond the conventional setup.

In one scene, for example, Russell talks to a hostage who is playing a violent handheld video game and is taken aback by it, telling the kid he’s going to talk to his father about the game he is playing. You don’t see that kind of thing in many thrillers. Nor do you generally see a movie embrace New York’s cultural polyglot in this way.

Rather than being a source of tension, the city’s racial and cultural mixture is folded naturally into the story, becoming part of the plot while making subtle commentary that is the opposite of the collisions of Oscar winner “Crash.” That’s unexpected coming from Lee, but his stamp on the sentiment gives it more resonance.

I’ve always thought that Lee was one of today’s best filmmakers — I can’t remember not liking any movie he’s done. But he’s never made a film this big. With “Inside Man,” he shows he can more than hold his own with Hollywood’s best and is able to put distinct social commentary into what is basically a well-crafted genre picture.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.

Inside Man

***½

Director: Spike Lee

Stars: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer

Rated: R for language and some violent images.

Running Time: 2 hours, 8 minutes

Now Showing: Grand, East Park, SouthPointe

The Reel Story: Owen is the clever leader of a gang of bank robbers, Washington the hostage negotiator who talks to him in this well-made, surprising thriller that is the first true mainstream film from director Lee.