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PLOT: An unflappable robber takes hostages in a daring daylight bank heist, but a wily NYPD detective senses there's something more than money at stake. Throw in a nervous bank owner and mysterious fixer, and you've got enough red herrings to feed the Bronx Zoo pelicans for a year.
"My name is Dalton Russell," says Inside Man's cool and calculating bank robber (Clive Owen), speaking to the camera in the film's opening minute. "Pay strict attention to what I say, because I choose my words carefully and I never repeat myself."
Wow, he's not kidding. By the time Inside Man has unspooled, your brain might be aching from keeping track of all the players and their motivations.
It's a shell game of a movie - think the peanut's under this one? Guess again, sucker - but like any good con, there's enough hustle and fast-talk to soften the blow of getting hoodwinked.
A curious blending of old-school heist flicks like Dog Day Afternoon with director Spike Lee's love of his native New York and its melting pot of social issues, Inside Man starts off simply enough: A gang of four bank robbers calmly take over a musty Wall Street financial institution, rounding up 50 or so diverse hostages in the process.
Called to the scene is NYPD detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington), but he soon senses something's not quite right with this hold up. As the day wears on, the tension gets ratcheted up, while the robbers' playbook becomes increasingly odd.
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Inside Man sows its seeds slowly and deliberately, daring us to guess what's really going on. What's the deal with the nervous bank owner (Christopher Plummer) and that safety deposit box? Who is this Madeline White (Jodie Foster), and what interests is she protecting?
Most of all, how is it going to end? Through flash-forward interrogations, we know at least some of the hostages get out alive, and the bandits apparently have made a clean getaway. But how? And what did they take?
First-time screenwriter Russell Gerwitz's script is a little over-plotted, but the raw talent among the principals (plus Willem Dafoe and Dirty Pretty Things' Chiwetel Ejiofor in supporting roles) makes up for the meandering storyline.
There is such a thing as too much foreplay, though, and Inside Man sustains its tease for a little too long. By the time the questions are finally answered, the audience has almost forgotten what they wanted to know in the first place.
That, coupled with a denouement that's too neat 'n' pretty (and hinges on an unlikely bit of sleight of hand betwixt criminal and cop) makes Inside Man's climax less satisfying than its buildup. But since that buildup is so darn good, we're okay with cutting Spike some slack.
BOTTOM LINE: A throwback to the classic heist flicks of the '70s but with a 21st-century sensibility, Inside Man is the kind of twisty, cerebral thriller that they don't make any more. It's just a shame that the payoff doesn't quite live up to the promise.
(This film is rated 14-A)