Review

Inside Man
Director: Spike Lee
Writer: Russell Gewirtz
Cast: Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster,
Clive Owen
Genre: Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 129mins
It’s not your usual Spike Lee joint this one.

The film starts with a very popular Indian film song for a change as the credits roll in.
You look for the famous Spike Lee touches..the wry judgmental script on human foibles, the racial inequality...the trademark ‘unattractive’ close ups; they’re there but this one is a thriller, well almost.
A finely calibrated performance by the dependable Denzel Wahington, the suitably menacing bank robber/genius/control freak played by Clive Owen, the ice maiden with a very obvious hidden agenda Jodie Foster, and a brief winsome appearance by Christopher Plummer all seamlessly melded together by a director who surely knows his craft.
Spike Lee’s touches however remain unmistakedly in his characterisation of the ‘also seen’ bit players in the film. Brilliant characterisations of the hostages whose observation powers reflect pure human nature when questioned after the almost perfect crime by the police, the very New York characters whose ancestral roots and subcultures make them unique, the power sturggles within the system, all observed with a keen albeit jaundiced eye by an offbeat director. The film captures the essence of a busy metropolitan city where human existence is unique in its diversity and the acceptance of crime is almost soporific.
However this Spike Lee offering falls short – it isn’t an out and out thriller neither is it a docmentary on the “state of the union” that is the US – it falls some in between.
Technically flawed in terms of cinematography, where the raw edgy shooting style doesn’t lend itself to the sophisticated thriller that was intended; the ever present grey foreboding lighting that  detracts from the humour of some situations in the film and what seems to be a compromise an almost sellout at the Box Office.    
Though it is good in parts it won’t keep you riveted, but Denzel Wahington and Jodie Foster are consummate professionals who remain watchable on screen, both apart and together. Watch it if you arent bitten by the football bug or else wait for the next Spike Lee Joint.
— Sunil D’Souza