Movie Review: The Inside Man

Well, I just got around to seeing “The Inside Man” and I have to say that I guess I missed out when it was in the theater. The DVD came in this weekend from Netflix and we had a sit down today.

Now, when the film came out I remember saying I wanted to see it, but we never got round to it. Perhaps the trailer just did not grab me as much as it could have, perhaps we just got busy with life. As I remember though, it did not make a big splash in the theaters though.

In any case, the story revolves around a bank robbery on Wall Street, well Exchange street really, a place I am familiar with as I have been stopped from taking photos there.

The plot plays out as a group of bank robbers take over the bank and begin a process of taking hostages. As the plot progresses, we see that not only is the hostage taking an integral part of the bank “heist” but also as a means for escape by confounding the police with confusion between robbers and hostages. This is done by dressing everyone in the same thing and to keep the hostages confused with disinformation.

Into this walks Denzel Washington as a police detective who is looking to get his “first grade” status but seems to be in trouble with IAB. He is sent in and begins to see that this robbery is not all it would seem to be and works toward not only resolving the hostage crisis, but to also see just what the leader (Clive Owen) is really up to.

The addition of Jodie Foster brings an interesting twist to the story too. Ms. Foster’s character is, rather nasty in a cutthroat bitch way, and she does a good job at making you dislike her as a “Fixer” of sorts. She is contacted by the owner of the bank to assure that his personal safe deposit box is untouched in the vault. She accepts the assignment and moves on to basically blackmail the mayor of NY to get her close to the bank and to have control of the situation.

What ensues after this are many twists and turns that left me guessing up until the end just what was going to happen and exactly why it was done. In fact, you never really get the why from Clive Owen, even in the last voice over of the film… Which, I kind of like.

The one thing that kept running through my mind at the end though was one word.. Mossad…

The cinematography was good, the musical score was daring, and the script/screenplay was well written. The dialog was snappy and overall, the movies pace was fast even with the tendency to flip back and forth in time using the usual flashback sequence contrivance.

Not a bad heist film and some good acting on all parts by the star studded cast.

Check it out.

CoB