Movie Review: Inside Man
Rating: 3 and 1/2 Stars
Find your nearest pitchfork and wave it in the air as I make this stunning admission. Inside Man is not only my first Denzel Washington film, but it’s also my first Spike Lee joint as well. Tough look for me but it’s never too late to amend for my cinema sins.
The way Denzel has been described by cinephiles falls into what I would refer to as the ‘DiCaprio rule’, which many would call the ‘Denzel rule’. The rule is that no matter how good or bad the movie is, if DiCaprio is a focal point of the movie, you’re going to get a committed well-acted performance.
From the instant that Denzel takes the screen in Inside Man, he commands an immediate gravitas and energy that pulls you in. Denzel plays Detective Keith Frazier, whose cozy demeanor besets the trigger-happy NYPD. Speaking of tough looks, I can’t imagine the NYPD was at all thrilled with Spike’s portrayal of America’s seemingly eminent police force.
Frazier is flanked by Detective Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who perfectly complements Frazier by matching his bravado but never attempting to outshine him.
What makes Inside Man work as an effective heist thriller is that it subverts all of our heist movie expectations. Even the title of the film subverts the general expectation.
A typical heist film is a cat-and-mouse affair where the police have the upper hand advantage. The robbers are the mice that are forced to scurry about living on the edge making narrow escapes to avoid being caught.
Inside Man flips this scenario on its head. The robbers are led by Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) who was a step ahead of the police before the heist even began. Russell planned the perfect heist and then executed it. Conventional wisdom would tell us that we should root for Russell’s demise. Inevitably, more is revealed that alters the film’s perspective.
This is where heist victim, business mogul Arthur Case, (Christopher Plummer, and the agent he dispatches, a calculated fixer Madeleine White (Jodie Foster), enter stage left.
Inside Man comes alive in its second act when Frazier realizes he and the NYPD are being played.
The script shines in the hands of great performances from Denzel, Foster, Owen, and Willem Dafoe who plays a gruff by-the-book police captain. Racial overtones are prevalent throughout.
The story as it is written is not without its logical fallacies and plotholes. The hardest instance to let go is when the robbers effectively fool Detective Frazier and friends by playing a taped recording of a former Albanian president. I’m no great riddle solver myself but even I was a bit perturbed that nobody could distinguish the difference between a taped recording and a live conversation.
Inside Man opens with a phenomenal monologue from Owen. It’s not only a table setter but a tone setter. Dalton Russell is a man who chooses his words and actions carefully, and he is pitted against a man in Detective Mitchell who contrasts his approach with a clear conscious. Mitchell isn’t beholden to the shackles of your standard detective. Despite Mitchell being completely ridiculed by the robbers again and again, he reengages unfazed.
Unfortunately, the ending does not hold up to the standard set by the opening. There is information given away that eventually drags the film to an unsatisfying conclusion. YET! Despite a lackluster ending, Inside Man is a case study of the journey being more enjoyable than the destination. Bad endings can tailspin weaker films. Inside Man has more than enough foundation to crumble at the seams.
