Inside Man (2006) - 7/10

I was hesitant to revisit Inside Man having just finished the rewatch/review for Ocean's Twelve since back-to-back heist movies might be annoying. However, I have seen Inside Man before and was intrigued at the contrasts between the two films and the many differences would prevent it from being repetitive viewing.  So let's jump into the rubric and see how this film holds up. 

1. Acting 

The immediate difference/strength that Inside Man has going for it when compared to Ocean's or other heist movies is the acting. Denzel Washington is one of the greatest actors of all time and he runs laps around the entire Ocean's star studded cast. With that said, Detective Keith Frazier is right in Washington's wheelhouse to the point that it feels like the role was written for him all along. I think that is one of Washington's gifts as an actor - no matter what is on the page, he makes it feel like it is coming innately from him. He fills Keith with such a range of characteristics/emotions throughout the runtime. He is smart, funny, stressed, anxious, confident, arrogant, intimidating and much more. The best part of it being that none of it is, or needs to be, explicitly stated - rather with every line delivery, every glance, and every bit of body posture, Washington is informing the audience of his character. And this isn't even a film I'd consider as his best work.

As for our non-Denzel members of the cast, Inside Man attracted a bunch of heavy hitters. Jodie Foster does a great job as the mysterious and aloof fixer Madeleine White who we get a clear sense of moral ambiguity from. We also have the veteran expertise of Christopher Plummer. As the bank owner Arthur Case, he is able to give the 'capitalist with a clearly shady past' a reserved sense of someone who is both ashamed yet feels justified in his past. Clive Owen gets to just come in and be a cool and somewhat suave criminal mastermind that has the somewhat odd challenge of concealing as much as he can about his character without being completely devoid of humanity. And as a fun bonus we get Willem Dafoe just playing a normal person for once. 

Now, there are plenty of other great actors buried within the cast, but the bulk of the screen time goes to the above and everyone seems to have shown up ready to make a solid and well acted film.  

2. Cinematography 

This is probably Spike Lee's most commercial film to date in a variety of ways - including visually. That's not a critique, but rather an observation that this felt more 'Hollywood' in terms of aesthetics. Now, Lee and his cinematographer Matthew Libatique still were able to imbue the film was their own style and approaches. 

One smart move the collaborators made was to change shooting styles between the two sides of the hostage standoff. Inside the bank with Clive Owen's character, we see the consistent use of steadicam and well framed shots. The idea was to give those scenes a sense that the bank robbers were completely calm and in control of the situation. When transitioning to Washington and the scenes taking place outside the bank, the team utilized more handheld shots to instill a sense of chaos and unease. It is a subtle trick, but one that can relay information to the audience unconsciously. 

They also chose to shoot the interrogation scenes with a much different visual tone to include the use of a green color grading. The idea being that they knew they wanted to integrate those scenes non-linearly into the plot and changing the visual style would help the audience understand that those scenes were taking place in the future. Again, it subtle - but effective use of visual language to inform the audience. 

And the film is not devoid of some classic Lee-isms. The sweeping crane shots and fast paced nature of shots helps keep the audience visually engaged. This is especially important because when you zoom out - the plot is mostly a lot of people waiting around for hours until something happens. We also get a staple of Lee's - the double dolly shot. Its become an almost signature move for the Director where the actor and camera both move on a dolly rig and in this particular context elicits a sense of loss of control and someone being emotionally rattled. 

3. Production/Costume Design 

Probably the biggest thing to talk about here is the main location of the movie: the bank. The filmmakers elected to shoot a large majority of the scenes at an old Wall Street bank that had since been converted into a cigar bar. That means the production team built the entirety of the bank that you see on screen from scratch. I think the execution largely speaks for itself and I was completely fooled and assumed everything was filmed in an actual bank. 
 

4. Writing 

One of the issues I noted that audiences had with Ocean's Twelve (and applies to other heist movies) is the 'big reveal' moment not landing because it hadn't been properly setup. Contrarily,the big reveal of Inside Man is telegraphing its twist from the very first shot of the film. We are made to believe through visual and dialogue that the antagonist is in jail. We then jump into the actual events of the plot and we are constantly, but slowly, being shown just how the bank robbers intend to get away with their heist. At the same time we are constantly seeing, and being suggested from the police, that there is more than meets the eye with this particular heist. 

Now, setting up the finale is only half the problem. You want certain things to be obvious, but you need to still keep the audience somewhat in the dark so as not to ruin the eventual moment. I think Inside Man is able to accomplish that fine balance and the ultimate payoff is still good. 

I do have at least two things that I noted on this re-watch in terms of the writing. First, the motivations of the robbers seems a bit muddled due to the 'side story' involving Mr. Case and his shady past. Its unclear if the bank robbers conveniently discovered the information about Case and knew that would provide them an insurance policy and obscure their diamond theft. That in itself is fine. However, because of the Nazi subplot and seemingly specific inclusion of a Jewish character as part of the crew - is there supposed to be something more personal going on with the robbery? It doesn't explicitly get addressed and feel a bit tacked on. That tacking on part feels especially true considering that aspect of the plot happened during re-writes from pre-production. 

Second, I don't think this film gets stronger on re-watches like some movies do. It's a hard thing to really hold against the film because movies aren't necessarily designed to hold up to the scrutiny of multiple viewings. Nevertheless, I think of films like The Prestige that seem to get better each time I watch them because I pick up on more and more things.  Inside Man, however, felt more boring this time around since I knew what the big twist in the ending was. 

5. Sound Design 

The soundtrack is an interesting mix of styles but didn't find it to be particularly memorable. And the rest of the sound design is competent without having anything particular to note. 

6. Editing 

Like I mentioned, a good portion of the film is a bunch of people standing around and waiting for something to happen. Lee and his team manage to keep things visually interesting and the pace moving steadily for the most part though. We also smartly take various breaks from the main plot by inserting interrogation scenes from the future into the otherwise linear narrative which helps the film from stagnating.  

7. Visual Effects 

I didn't clock anything too particular and the VFX seemed minimal.  

8. Originality or Strength of Adaptation 

Lee has cited Dog Day Afternoon as a favorite of his and noted that Inside Man reminded him of a modern retelling of that film. I also found the twist of this film to be well executed and smartly done. If that idea has been used before, I certainly wasn't aware of it.  

9. Stunt Coordination 

Not a ton of specific things, but I did enjoy the inter-cutting of the characters discussing how they were going to storm the bank with actual footage of the fictional raid taking place. 

10. Direction 

Like I said, this seems to be at least one of the most 'commercial' entries into Spike Lee's filmography. However, this doesn't stop him from putting his own stamp onto the final product and the execution of the film as a whole is well done.  

Legacy/Final Thoughts

I was much more enthused by this film on my initial watch several years ago. Now, it feels a bit more boring and is largely held up by Denzel Washington doing Denzel things. It may not rank very high up on the heist movie charts, but it is well executed and has a clever spin on a well-trodden type of movie.