Spike Lee is out of his element with lackluster thriller 'Inside Man'

Friday, March 24, 2006

The reunion of Spike Lee and Denzel Washington -- the director-star team of "Mo' Better Blues," "Malcolm X" and "He Got Game" -- raises hopes of something special, but "Inside Man" is a fairly routine heist drama and a never especially believable puzzle film.

MOVIE REVIEW

INSIDE MAN

DIRECTOR: Spike Lee

CAST: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster

RUNNING TIME: 129 minutes

RATING: R for language and some violent images

GRADE: C+

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Its problem is that it's a genre thriller all the way, and though Lee manages to pull off a handful of effective scenes, he doesn't have the flair -- or the interest, probably -- to bring it off with real conviction. He's in this one for the money, and it shows.

The story is about an enigmatic master criminal (Clive Owen) who plans and executes a "genius plan" in which he and several masked companions take over a Lower Manhattan bank and brutally seize several dozen of its customers as hostages.

The NYPD negotiator given the task of dealing with these crooks is an affable junior detective (Washington) -- himself under a cloud of suspicion from a previous case -- who soon surmises that the perpetrators are not what they appear to be.

Also in the mix is a smarmy New York political insider (Jodie Foster), hired by the chairman of the bank's board of directors (Christopher Plummer) to oversee the crisis and make sure that certain secrets he has in his safe-deposit box stay secret.

And the movie regularly flashes forward to show the cop-hero interviewing the parade of released hostages in an effort to determine which were an inside part of the caper -- a device that tips off the outcome, dissipates suspense and quickly becomes tiresome.

The film's performances are its saving grace. Washington is as appealing as ever, Foster is skillfully odious in her change-of-pace role, Owen is morbidly compelling as the determined heavy and Plummer is letter-perfect as the guilt-ridden bank honcho.

But even though he assumes a much more politically mellow mood than usual, Lee just doesn't seem to have the knack or verve to bring off this kind of highly plot-driven "Usual Suspects"-style puzzle movie. In the end, it is vaguely unsatisfying and impossibly far-fetched.

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