A new 'Man'

Attitude-free Lee pulls off first straight-ahead thriller

Friday, March 24, 2006

Say what? You're telling me that Spike Lee, the director who's been pushing people's buttons for years, has made a straight-ahead thriller? And not only that, Lee's new movie, Inside Man, isn't loaded with confrontational attitude?

It's true. Lee has directed Inside Man, a thriller with a big-league cast, a New York mind-set and some of the best storytelling the director has done to date. If the final act doesn't exactly explode with payoff, let's at least be thankful - particularly in this dry season - for a movie that's rich in crisply tailored fun.

The script, by Russell Gewirtz, sets up a battle between two characters, a brainy bank robber (Clive Owen) and a New York Police Department hostage negotiator (Denzel Washington). When the movie opens, Washington's Detective Frazier is under a mild cloud of suspicion, something about money taken from a cocaine bust.

Troubles or not, the plot contrives to have Frazier thrown into a volatile situation. A gang of robbers has taken over a bank in New York's financial district. Hostages are being held. A jet has been demanded. Onlookers and TV reporters have gathered.

With his head shaved and his moods darting this way and that, Washington delivers his dialogue as if he's tapping some kind of inner sonar, words pinging off unseen targets. Why not? There's not a whole lot to the character, so Washington's free to be inventive. Frazier has a sexy girlfriend but doesn't want to marry her. He's too poor. He's eager to be promoted. He knows his way around a crime scene. He's got a great straw hat.

Joining Lee in this nicely assembled effort are Jodi Foster, as a mysterious woman who seems to have all kinds of political juice, and Willem DaFoe, as a police captain in charge of the tactical side of the hostage situation. Christopher Plummer portrays the head of the bank, and the endlessly versatile Chiwetel Ejiofor signs on as Washington's partner.

Foster plays a real-estate broker who's also a fixer. We don't have a clue how her Madeline White acquired so much clout, but it's clear that she's willing to play dirty. She's a smiling ice queen who's used to going toe-to-toe with powerful people.

The story revolves around a variety of secrets, which are gradually revealed, and Lee can't totally resist the addition of a few of his trademark visual flourishes. At one point, he even takes a swipe at superviolent computer games. He also makes references to ethnic tensions involving both blacks and Arabs.

But for a Lee movie, the mood is light, and he weaves some humor into New York's ethnic tapestry. Moreover, many of the cops seem mildly aware of the silly flip side of a situation that continually threatens to turn tragic.

Because he's not selling a point of view, Lee basically adheres to the demands of a story that includes flash- forwards to interviews with the hostages, scenes that obviously must be taking place after the crisis has been resolved. These "interrogations" gather their meaning from a plot point that can't be disclosed here.

It's difficult to avoid comparisons with another New York movie involving banks and hostages, Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Dog Day, which was full of urban exasperation, had an undercurrent of absurdity. Inside Man has a cleaner, less ragged quality. It's a thriller for Bloomberg's New York.

If the production proceeds without signs of strain, maybe it's because Lee has worked with Washington before. After Malcolm X, He Got Game and Mo' Better Blues, Lee and Washington probably don't require a whole lot of talk.

And unlike many of Lee's movies, this one's not likely to inspire anyone to fume on an op-ed page. Inside Man shows that Lee can squeeze himself into a genre (well, almost) - and when he does, he's still got some pretty entertaining game.

Robert Denerstein is the film critic. Denersteinb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5424