When you put the kind of Hollywood star power into a thriller that Inside Man does, you better get something special for your efforts.

      I mean, the principal actors in this film have received four Oscars (two each for Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster) and been nominated for eight more (Washington 3, Foster 2, Willem Dafoe 2, Clive Owen 1). 

      Add to that the enormous experience of Christopher Plummer (Captain Von Trapp himself) as the film’s villain and the presence of one of America’s most inventive and controversial directors, Spike Lee, and you just know Inside Man has the pedigree to be exceptional.

      And it is.  The trailers alone make Inside Man look exciting, if somewhat derivative of earlier films in the genre like Dog Day Afternoon (and the film’s dialogue acknowledges that debt).  But the trailers are misleading, in a good way – they entice but don’t reveal the many virtues of the film itself.

      Take that “derivative” plot.  Yes, the film starts with a meticulously planned bank robbery that seems to go awry, resulting in a tense hostage situation.  Lee’s direction milks the tension to maximum effect, and for more than half the movie, we watch the cat-and-mouse game of negotiations, punctuated by violent outbursts.

      Just when it seems like the film should be over, though – hostages freed, robbery averted (though not in the way you’d expect) – it picks up again.  Loose threads scattered through the early part of the film begin to come together, misdirections and mysteries are revealed, and the viewer is forced to reconsider the moral position of the major characters.

      Is Clive Owen’s bank robber a ruthless criminal, out for the money and willing to sacrifice lives if necessary to get it?  Or is he the concerned bystander who warns a young boy off violent video games and advises detective Keith Frazier (Washington) to marry his long-time girlfriend?

      Is the mysterious Madeleine White (Foster) really the amoral political influence-peddler she appears to be?  A tool of the bank president (Plummer)?  A manipulator who insures that justice is done in the end?

      Advance publicity understandably highlights Washington and Foster, both double-Oscar winners, but there is much more to film than these two.  Clive Owen’s performance, in particular, is stellar – for my money, much stronger than Washington’s, and that’s saying a lot. Owen (Closer) is only third-billed in the film, but his part is more substantial than Foster’s (who is essentially in a supporting-actor role here) and morally more complex than Washington’s.

      Be forewarned the ending gets a bit confusing, as the plot twists crazily, jerking the viewer into a new path as abruptly and dramatically as a carnival ride.  But that’s okay – unlike many of its generic cousins, Inside Man seeks both to entertain and to provoke moral thought, and succeeds at both.

 This review appeared in the Aberdeen American News on March 26,  2006.

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