Just got back from watching Inside Man, starring, in order of appearance, Clive Owen, Denzel Washington, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Christopher Plummer, Jodie Foster, and Willem Dafoe, produced by Brian Grazer, and directed by Spike Lee.
With credentials like that, you would be justified in having high expectations from this movie. And you would probably be wondering what these people would be doing coming together for a heist/hostage situation movie.
(Well, maybe not Jodie Foster, since she was in that Panic Room movie, and Christopher Plummer has made a tradition of appearing in all kinds of bad things, and, well, Denzel did that underwhelming thriller Out of Time, and Chiwetel Ejiofor was channelling some sort of Dennis Hopper in Four Brothers, and Willem Dafoe seems to be mighty unchoosy in his roles, and Clive Owen is frankly never going to live down King Arthur, and Brian Grazer gave us The Cat in the Hat, and Spike Lee, well, not everyone gets Spike... but still!)
Inside Man delivers the thrills, the plotting, the twists, and the conflicts you would expect from a heist film. While not perfect, it hits the numbers and entertains. The bad guys are not what they seem, the good guys don't make the classic good guy blunders, and not everyone gets away with everything.
At heart, though, this is another in Spike Lee's series of sonnets to the love of his life, New York City. The people, the tensions, the attitudes of New York-- these are the unsung extras in this film, warts and all. And what a strange and intriguing mess they are.
Thumbs up.
3.26.2006
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2 comments:
We finally saw this over the weekend. I loved it. It was so satisfying -- smart and gorgeously shot.
Wasn't it something? I think I really started to fall for it when they started bringing out the crowd barriers and tying the police tape to the doors. That sort of detail usually gets left out.
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