INSIDE MAN

There are a number of things I didn’t understand in director Spike Lee’s latest film, and I subsequently wound up leaving the theater a little confused.

I’m pretty sure it’s not because I missed some crucial pieces of information (I was paying attention) or because the plot was so complex that it defied comprehension (it’s pretty straightforward)…so I’m left to believe that maybe the answers to my questions were left on the editing room floor.

Clive Owen’s forehead stars as Dalton Russell, a seemingly likable-enough guy (whose face is covered for most of the film), who also happens to be a criminal mastermind orchestrating a big, fat hostage-taking-cum-robbery at a big, fat bank in New York City. He and his quartet of minions pose as painters, secure the bank and order the 30 or so folks inside to don outfits identical to the ones worn by Dalton and crew. (Anyone who’s seen Quick Change will recognize this tactic and some of the other diversionary techniques employed by the would-be thieves.) Immediately called into action is police detective and hostage negotiator Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington), who’s gunning for a promotion and hopes this assignment might bump him up a grade. He and his partner (Chiwetel Ejiofor) arrive on the scene, are debriefed by Captain Darius (Willem Dafoe) and start to plan their rescue mission.

Meanwhile, the wealthy chairman of the bank board (Christopher Plummer) seems unusually antsy about what’s going on at this branch. He’s panicky. Nervous. Why? It’s a secret, which is what he tells Madeline White (Jodie Foster), a slick woman of indeterminate occupation (what the hell is she? a fixer? a lawyer? a city official?) he hires for a hefty sum to retrieve his safety-deposit box from the bank before it’s looted. Again, why? Still secret, but whatever he’s got in that box is of utmost importance to him and he doesn’t want anybody – ANYBODY! – finding out what’s in there. (Say it with me, Roger Ebert: McGuffin!)

So, to recap: we’ve got Clive holed up in the bank with hostages, Denzel trying to get Clive and the hostages out, and Jodie doing her darndest to get inside in order to take something out. Follow me so far?

The story unspools very, very slowly and methodically, but the pacing works. For a while, anyway. Every detail is examined, and the film goes back and forth between the questioning of hostages after the end of the siege, and the action taking place during the siege itself. All the while we’re left to wonder: How’s Clive gonna get out? How’s Jodie gonna get in? How’s Denzel going to win? And what the hell is inside that safety deposit box?

To the film’s credit, the tension is kept nice and taut for much of the first ¾ of its respectable 130-minute running time. The audience is left to try to piece together what’s happening and to guess how it might play out, which is especially fun when there are plenty of potential theories (and occasionally overly busy subplots) to play with. Not surprisingly, the actors are all terrific, and Washington seems to be having an especially great time with his character, injecting Frazier with humor, sass and a keen criminal-busting mind.

Unfortunately, Inside Man’s final quarter is kind of disappointing, and winds up ending with what feels a bit like a whimper instead of a bang. After that much build-up, it almost screams out for a killer final act…but it never arrives, and I was left with a distinct feeling of “wait, that’s it???” when the credits rolled. Not to mention the myriad of questions left hanging in my brain: what the hell does Madeline do for a living and who is she? why did Dalton embark on this heist in the first place and how did he get the information he clearly has? what did the mayor have to do with anything? were the hostages and the criminals being repeatedly swapped out during the siege? if so, how were we supposed to tell? why did the masked female robber break down and cry out of nowhere, or was that a hostage dressed as her?

And so on. Once all is said and done and the movie is over, Dalton’s whole undertaking comes off as a huge, pointless, needlessly extravagant spectacle that was executed more for show than for any logical reason.

As far as heist dramas go, this one’s pretty good. It’s only when the heist is actually over and the loose ends are left to be tied (or, I supposed, ignored) that the story starts to falter and all that fantastic suspense wheezes out like a slow, disappointing leak.