Inside Man
Rated: R
Runtime: 2 hours, 9 minutes
Directed by: Spike Lee
Starring:
Denzel Washington - Detective Keith Frazier
Clive Owen - Dalton Russell
Jodie Foster - Madeline White
Christopher Plummer - Arthur Case
Willem Dafoe - Captain John Darius
Chiwetel Ejiofor - Detective Bill Mitchell
Spike Lee is a tough director. Race and culture permeate all his films yet he keeps challenging himself with new genres, new writers, new ensembles, and yet through all of it, I can't help but wonder if the song remains the same. While I think 25th Hour is one of the best films in the past ten years, not just in Lee's filmography, but in all of cinema, the scene where Monty goes on a racial tirade feels like a return to a similar scene in arguably Lee's best film, Do The Right Thing. While it would be nice to always seperate the artists from their art, Spike Lee is not a reclusive figure and there is no such thing as a fluff piece for him. Spielberg will make a couple films about the Jews; Del Toro will make some spanish-language films; Spike Lee could direct the next Harry Potter film and find a way to insert racial politics. I'm not saying that's necessarily bad; it's just that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It's a testament to Lee's skill as a director that he somehow makes it work in one of the least likely of settings: a heist film.
The film opens on my current favorite actor, Clive Owen (Closer + Croupier + Sin City + BMW Films + This Film = I Heart Clive Owen) telling us how he has orcestrated the perfect bank robbery and that's all the film is. It's not like Heat or Ocean's Eleven where the heist is the climax of the film. The film is the heist and it's probably one of the best heist films ever made. It's constantly clever and plays a wonderful cat-and-mouse game not just between the characters but between the story and the audience. But what keeps this sharp script from just being an exercise in cool are the performances and the direction. Jodie Foster is a bit of an ancillary character who is too much star for the role she plays. Furthermore, she's an irritating distraction who only positively serves the film by contrasting her own intellectual masturbation with the cool wits and confidence of Dalton Russell (Owen) and Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington). It's the back and forth between these two brilliant actors that partly make this film special.
The other half belongs to Lee. Lee long ago mastered the technical aspect of filmmaking. He sometimes lets his frequent collaborator, composer Terence Blanchard, get a little too heavy on the brass instruments and overwhelm the scene, but when it comes to editing, cinematography, visual and sound effects, casting, Lee has everything covered. Sure, there are a few nitpicks (the stand-outs are Lee forcing his dolly-ride shot on the film simply because it's a Spike Lee Shot(TM) and the jarring narrative timeline-jump of interviewing the hostages post-crisis) but nothing so long and nothing so dubious as to push you out of the film. With Lee, The only real question is will he elevate the material and insert his trademark social commentary with grace and style or will he bludgeon us over the head with it? With Inside Man, it's usually the former rather than the later. By making the melting pot of New York City a lead character (and films that somehow lose the character of NYC rather than embrace it tend to lack a pulse), Inside Man becomes a human story rather than Heist Science 101.
I always approach Spike Lee films with great trepedation. I'm a white person so I'm afraid there might be a guilt trip in store for me. I'm also afraid that Lee will have put himself in front of the camera when it comes to his personal vendettas and axe-grinds instead of just telling the best story Spike Lee can tell (if you recall some years back when Lee sued the Spike network because he claimed they were banking on his name, then you'll agree that fear of Spike Lee's ego is not completely unfounded). But I also approach his films with excitement because it could be another Do The Right Thing, another He Got Game, another 25th Hour, another Inside Man.
Words by
Matt Goldberg
8.13.06