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Just when you may have thought that Spike Lee didn’t have anything left in the tank after his last film, “She Hate Me”, failed at the box office, he comes back to the plate and pitches a no-hitter. His latest film, “Inside Man”, is his most commercial film to date and it’s his best film since “25th Hour”. Everything from the writing, the acting, the cinematography and the music works. The film features an all-star lineup starting with his favorite muse, Denzel Washington. It’s Washington’s fourth film with Lee after appearing in “Mo’ Better Blues”, “Malcolm X”, and “He Got Game”. Along with Washington, Lee’s got Clive Owen, Two-Time Oscar Winner Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe, Christopher Plummer, and Chiwetel Ejiofor, amongst a bevy of talented performers. One may wonder how everyone is going to shine in their scenes, but with Lee’s direction, everyone got a chance to hit their pitch and make it count.
We start off with Owen’s Dalton Russell and his masked gang of three walking in a bank by New York’s Wall Street and holding everyone hostage, taking their cell phones and having them strip off their clothes to wear the same the clothes as the bank robbers. Anyone who defies their orders gets beaten to teach the others a lesson. Washington plays Detective Keith Frazier and it seems that he’s in the police doghouse because of an ongoing investigation concerning some missing money. He’s given a chance to redeem himself by taking on the bank robbery case along with his partner, Detective Bill Mitchell (Ejiofor) and they relish it. While Russell has yet to make his demands, the owner of the bank (Plummer) contacts a mysterious power broker, Madeliene White, to help him protect some valuable and confidential assets that he fears may harm his career if the contents were known. In between the bank robbery, we cut to forwarding scenes that show the freed hostages explaining what they saw happening in the bank while they were held captive. In working with Emergency Services Unit Captain Darius (Dafoe), Frazier believes he can talk Russell out of harming the hostages, but doesn’t realize how carefully Russell planned the heist. When the mayor intervenes and instructs Frazier to allow White to communicate with Russell, things get complicated. With too many people having the playbook, Frazier doesn’t have a grasp on the situation as things start to escalate to what he didn’t would happen. In the beginning of the film, Russell does a voice over narration stating, “Pay strict attention to what I say, because I choose my words carefully, and I never repeat myself”. If you follow his words, you will be wondering if he can put it off.
In most of Lee’s films, he usually leaves you debating the message he was trying to convey, but with this film, it’s a simple heist film with clever writing. Gerwirtz may have wrote the film, but I suspect Lee injected some of his New York flavor to it as well. Owen is very defining as the bank robber. He’s calm, calculated and displays a sense of emotion that you actually want him to get away. Washington again brings his “A” game to the plate. The chemistry between he and Lee works in that he can improvise on scenes where it really seems real as opposed to something that was written for the scene. For Foster, it’s rare that she plays a supporting role, and her character wasn’t necessary for the film, but she makes it count. Another brilliant thing about the film is that Lee is able to give so many parts to unknown actors, at least until now, and have them inject some comedy to go along with the dramatic tension. As his regular composer, Blanchard’s score is mesmerizing. The scene stealer in the film is the script. There are so many clever lines, ranging from odes to Al Pacino’s films, to racial jokes, and the cat and mouse deliveries between Russell and Frazier, Russell and White, and White and Frazier. Whenever you have a cast of this magnitude, the film is either going to be a hit or bust and Lee’s delivered the perfect pitch. “Inside Man” is a stunning entertaining film! |
