"INSIDE MAN"

Movie: Inside Man (2006) RATING: 7/10 Directed by: Spike Lee Written by: Russell Gewirtz CAST... Denzel Washington: Detective Keith Frazier Clive Owen: Dalton Russell Jodie Foster: Madeline White Christopher Plummer: Arthur Case Willem Dafoe: Captain John Darius Chiwetel Ejiofor: Detective Bill Mitchell Carlos Andrés Gómez: Steve Kim Director: Stevie MPAA: Rated R (for language and some violent images.) Runtime: 129 min. A medium-tight shot of Clive Owen talking right into the camera launches us into director Spike Lee's "Inside Man," a psychological thriller that is the most mainstream film Lee has ever made. The "Spike Lee film mystique" disappears quickly as we concentrate on what Clive Owen is saying, and why he's saying it. He's talking to us from what looks like a third-world prison cell. The only real information we're given in the opening 15 minutes or so is that there is going to bea robbery at a big Manhattan bank, Clive Owen and three others are involved and there's a lot more than a bank robbery happening here. There's almost a calmness amidst the excitement as the robbery is committed -- even mildly violent scenes are more mild than violent -- as Lee gives us all the camera angles we need to see who's involved and the details of how the crime is committed. The smoke clears and there are now 40-50 hostages as the NYC cops arrive and we meet Denzel Washington, a 2nd-grade detective/hostage negotiator trying to make 1st grade detective, but he's hit a roadblock because he can't account for missing money he's accused of stealing on a prior case. We also meet Willem Dafoe as a police captain who wants to storm the bank and get it all over with, and Christopher Plummer, the bank's elderly founder, who has a secret hidden in the bank that is more important than any valuables the robbers may steal. Plummer's secret is so important that he calls in Jodie Foster, who turns in the finest performance of a person who has no reason for being in a film as you'll ever see. Foster is a problem fixer for those at the highest levels of politics and business in New York and possibly the world -- she even walks past sweaty guys and an in-use men's bathroom to talk to the mayor in a private office -- and the mayor welcomes her presence. The problem is, we don't know who Jodie Foster really is, we never find out, and it doesn't matter anyway because the movie didn't need her in the first place. But at least she turns in a great performance to keep her record of great performances virtually untarnished. Foster's character isn't the only problem with "Inside Man." Without giving away the film's plot twists, Owen and the other three robbers are keeping hostages -- they don't have to hold hostages for for any other reason than the fact that it's in the script. Washington is trying to negotiate with Owen to meet his questionable demands, but they play each other to a draw and we don't get to see any crafty negotiator tricks that we would have love to have seen. We learn what Christopher Plummer's secret is (he did a bad bad thing), and we learn the robbery is a mechanism to right Plummer's past wrongs. Plus, we get a little Albanian language and history lesson along the way. The ending serves up a surprise twist in the plot (not only to wrap up the film, but to satisfy the audience, too), leaving the main characters with what they morally and materially deserve. What saves this film are the performances by Washington, Owen, Foster, and Plummer. (Willem Dafoe plays what amounts to a bit part, but he plays it perfectly, too.) Spike Lee even gives us a few real good laughs -- more humor than you expect out of your usual psycho-thriller, including a scene with a young boy, a video game and Owen, the "bad guy," that results in a good laugh and a stellar commentary on what has become normal and acceptable in our society. For a thriller, "Inside Man" doesn't break into a sprint and leave us gasping for breath at the end. It kind of walks along and provides interesting scenery along the way. But the questions you'll ask yourself walking out are questions that should have been answered during the movie. Overall, "Inside Man" is a nice walk around a familiar neighborhood that won't leave you out of breath. -2001pm -30-