Inside Man

INSIDE MAN (15)

D: Spike Lee

Universal/Imagine (Brian Grazer)

US 2006

123 mins

Crime/Thriller

W: Russell Gewirtz

DP: Matthew Libatique

Ed: Barry Alexander Brown

Mus: Terence Blanchard

PD: Wynn Thomas

Denzel Washington (Det. Keith Frazier), Clive Owen (Dalton Russell), Jodie Foster (Madeleine White), Christopher Plummer (Arthur Case), Willem Dafoe (Capt. John Darius), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Det. Bill Mitchell)

Spike Lee's multicultural heist thriller opens with Clive Owen breaking the fourth wall to address the audience with a claim that he has masterminded the perfect bank robbery. Denzel Washington is the detective assigned to prevent just that and what follows is a battle of wits, mind games and double-crossing which always keeps the audience guessing, especially with morally-ambiguous supporting characters thrown into the mix.

Elaborate, but quite brilliant, and without pushing the boundaries of feasibility, with great performances from its ensemble cast.

8/10