Intelligence can be a valuable factor in many of life’s outcomes. In the hands of good people, intelligence can lead to wonderful things and in the wrong hands, something so powerful has the potential to cause unimaginable damage and problems. But what happens when it belongs to a person of questionable character? What happens when it belongs to three people with questionable character? That’s one of the many things that’s discussed in the Spike Lee directed crime caper Inside Man.
When a group of masked criminals enter a bank and takes everyone hostage, the N.Y.P.D. rushes to the scene of the crime in progress. Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) is given the assignment although he is currently under investigation himself after 140,000 dollars came up missing and his name was attached to it. Frazier is going head to head with Dalton Russell (Clive Owen). Russell appears to always be one step ahead of the cops and believes that he’s planned the perfect bank heist.
Frazier knows that he must match the wits of a daring and confident criminal, but things get more complicated when a woman named Madeleine White (Jodie Foster) enters the fray at the request of a very important person. No one knows who she is or what she does, but she seems to have a wide range of connections with people in high places. All three people have their own agenda, but it’s Frazier’s job to solve the case before it’s too late.
The beauty of Inside Man comes from the fact that we don’t actually know what’s going on. We don’t know how good the good guys really are and we don’t know how bad the bad guys really are. All we know is that something is happening, but what that is will be anyones guess. Eventually morals and values get thrown around and tossed aside only for them to end up in places that you wouldn’t expect them to go.
This is where the intelligence of the characters is displayed. Russell knows exactly what’s going on while his adversary Detective Frazier has to figure it out. Frazier not only has to find out what’s going on, but he also must deal with Russell, White and their underlying issues that are on his plate. All of this turns the film into a game of cat and mouse for some of the important parties involved and it’s what helps carry the film.
We see a lot of Spike Lee trademarks in Inside Man. Although they’ve worked in some of his other films, some didn’t fit well here. The whole “walking while you’re not walking” thing that he loves doesn’t feel right in this movie. I understand the point of it being used in the particular scene, but it doesn’t work in my opinion. You can also say the same thing about the music in some of the parts of the film. It was pretty disruptive for me early on and it stood out too much because it was out-of-place. I did end up forgetting about it once the actors and the plot began to take center stage and stabilize everything.
The actors put on very professional performances and they were properly chosen for their roles. Clive Owen appears as the leader of the heist, but he’s more or less a voice since his face is almost never seen. His job in this film is almost the exact opposite of his performance in The Bourne Identity. He barely had any lines in that movie and was mainly a physical actor.
Washington puts on another great performance that expounds his on-screen charisma and acting talents. He is the central character and is basically the life line of the film as he interacts with all of the important players and guides us through just about everything that we need to know. Throw in a confident and calm performance by Jodie Foster and you have a pretty nice trio of lead actors.
Inside Man brings out the entertainment due to it’s structure, not knowing what’s going on, the actors and the suspense that they combine to create. It’s a thriller that effectively utilizes the ability of it’s actors and maintains a solid plot by allowing the viewers to see just enough until the time is right. Once that happens, we see that not only are the characters smart, but the film itself is even smarter than it first seemed. It’s hard to take your eyes off of the screen as everything is coming together with all of the quality that is laid out before us.
