An atypical Hollywood bank robbery thriller by Spike Lee, as a criminal group executes a perfect heist in the watchful eyes of the police in this compelling piece headlined by Denzel Washington and Clive Owen.
Review #2,952
Dir. Spike Lee
2006 | USA | Crime, Thriller | 129min | 2.35:1 | English & Albanian
NC16 (passed clean) for language and some violent images
Cast: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Plot: A police detective, a bank robber, and a high-power broker enter high-stakes negotiations after the criminal’s brilliant heist spirals into a hostage situation.
Awards: –
Distributor: Universal
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Bank Robbery; Hostage Crisis
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex
Pace: Normal
Audience Type: Mainstream
Viewed: Netflix
Spoilers: No
Inside Man isn’t your typical Hollywood bank robbery thriller, though it is packaged as a thrill-a-minute piece, Hollywood-style.
So kudos to Spike Lee for tackling something familiar yet different at the same time, echoing what film scholar Steve Neale famously said about how ‘differences’ were integral to the sustainability of genres.
Taking a leaf out of the Dog Day Afternoon (1975) playbook, Lee follows the conventions for as long as he can, before turning Inside Man into something more complex, plot-wise.
Clive Owen (also in the extraordinary Children of Men that year) plays the leader of a masked group of criminals who plans and executes the perfect heist, one that he is very confident of evading capture or death.
Part of the curiosity is seeing how it all unfolds as stakes are raised with dozens of hostages held at gunpoint, which makes Inside Man a compelling watch. Add Denzel Washington as a calm detective reduced occasionally to fits of anger and you get a ticking time bomb of a film.
“This time next week, I’ll be sucking down piña coladas in a hot tub with six girls named Amber and Tiffany.”
The cast is also supported by big names such as Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe, Christopher Plummer and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Everyone has a role to play, no matter how big or small—or shady.
In several scenes, we even see some hostages being interviewed by the police after the fact as they look back at those traumatic hours in captivity. Even then, the film doesn’t lose any ounce of suspense because Lee keeps it ambiguous—who survives, who doesn’t; or who’s a criminal, who’s a hostage?
Made a few years after heightened surveillance and racial profiling became a thing post-9/11, Inside Man does occasionally offer social commentary on how American authorities treat different kinds of people.
Leave it also to Spike Lee to choose the most random piece of music—in this case, an Indian song called ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’ (from 1998’s Dil Se..) by A.R. Rahman, albeit a slightly remixed version—to bookend his film.
In some way, it prefigured Hollywood’s celebration of Slumdog Millionaire just two years later, when it won multiple Oscars including Best Original Song (‘Jai Ho’) by Rahman himself.
Grade: B+
Trailer:
Music:
Eternality Tan 