O Plano Perfeito

A pleasure from start to finish. An older Denzel Washington has begun to emerge, and his performance here suggests he has many good years left. Clive Owen is terrific as the mastermind. He, and the plot, keeps you guessing. And while there are plenty of clues, they are so well incorporated that very few viewers will see how this one comes together in the end.

One major quibble: Jodie Foster's character is more archetype than person so it's to her credit that she pulls it off as well as it does. However, don't let that deter you from enjoying one of the best movies of the year. I'm glad to see Spike Lee tackle another genre film. He brings a re-invigorating approach to what, in other hands, would be a tiresome rehash. That liveliness seems to have worked on him, too -- this is his best film in several years.

This is a decent but not particularly memorable movie. I thought that Denzel Washington was pretty good, but he seems to have settled into a type. Confident and unyielding and always right (Coach Boone from Remember the Titans). This is fine and I enjoy watching him. This movie is about a bank robbery where the perpetrators are after more than money. It has to do with a righteous cause, but what happens is that the possibility of pulling it off and getting what they want is on such fragile ground that you need to ask the question, "Isn't there an easier way?" Anyway, the scenes in the bank are quite good but we really need to extend our disbelief at times. I've always wondered about that "get me a plane and a million dollars" business anyway. Well, there's a lot more to it than that. See this and enjoy the characters, but in the long run, it's pretty far fetched.

Inside Man tells the story of a man named Dalton Russel, who leads a daring bank robbery that turns into a hostage situation. Now he's dealing with disgraced hostage negotiator Keith Frazier, who is attempting to get to the bottom of things. When the shady CEO of the bank and a woman he's hired to help him protect certain interests arrive, he begins to discover that there's more to this bank robbery than it would seem. This is the only Spike Lee movie I've ever seen, but trust me, I'll see more, since this was a very intriguing film.

What I liked about Inside Man was the style it was made. It is choppy, but not so choppy that it's annoying (cough, Domino, cough, Man on Fire), so you get a sense of tension, and it seems very high paced. The plot is good, and very intriguing. There are some things you have to figure out throughout the film, which makes it more interesting. My only problem was that after the bank robbery was over, the film continued for another half hour, and it started to drag a bit. The dialogue in the movie is very cool. There's some humorous and some awesome lines that come out of the character's mouths.

The acting is very good. Denzel Washington is good as always as Det. Keith Frazier. Clive Owen gives a solid performance as Dalton Russell. I liked Willem Dafoe and Christopher Plummer. Jodie Foster wasn't as good as she usually is, but she's not in the movie a whole lot.

Overall, the movie lags toward the end, but it's intriguing and has an awesome plot.

7/10

Note: I stay away from describing the plot in any detail because it would be very hard to do so without spoiling elements of it. "Inside Man" starts out as a no holds barred, high octane action-thriller, and by its midpoint fully transforms into a breezy, tongue-in-cheek heist movie, reminiscent of The Sting. I felt it to be a little over-plotted, but that comes with the genre - the expected twists and turns are all here, thankfully mostly in non-expected ways. Contrivances abound, and we don't really learn the background of the heist (ie. how the robbers learned about their target) but the story and the overall atmosphere more than make up for this. The meticulously designed plot also compensates for the lack of real 3D characterization - save for Denzel Washington's ambitious policeman hero, who at least achieves a level of humanity throughout the story. The character interaction between him and his sidekick (Chiwetel Ejiofor of "Serenity" fame) and the frustrated captain played by Willem Defoe is great with some sparkling dialog. Clive Owen is okay, most of the time convincing as the criminal mastermind, although he spends most of the film wearing a mask. I'd say this film is harmless fun, not your usual Spike Lee fare, which goes to prove his versatility. There is a hint in the back-story at some heavy issues of the past, but it's nothing more than a macguffin that only achieves some slight significance in the resolution of the movie. There is a neat structural trickery in the use of flash-forward scenes, hinting toward the aftermath of the heist without giving away the real ending. It's used sparingly and cleverly. I can highly recommend this movie, it is never boring for a moment, what's more, I was enjoying it so much that as events were progressing toward the climax, I was wishing it would go on. And that's very rare for me in the movies nowadays.

In the crime/mystery genre Inside Man is just a bit better than a normal good movie. It's not excellent though, for that the heist is just too far fetched and perfect. Everybody likes to watch the perfect heist but in this case it's a bit exaggerated. But other than that small detail the rest of the movie is suspenseful, or at least it keeps you attentive as you keep wondering what will happen. For that there was the excellent interaction between Denzel Washington and Clive Owen. Both did a great job with their characters. The whole cast was perfect for this story. Spike Lee made another entertaining movie, one that I will watch again in a few years.