Inside Man

[grady]

Saw the new film from Spike Lee this evening, Inside Man. I was going into the film expecting to like it just from the cast of Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer and Clive Owen, esp. Owen. To top it all off it was a new film by Spike Lee, and a very different film from Lee than we've seen before with him working within a larger studio film budget as well as a genre piece. Though it still carries the title card, A Spike Lee Joint in the opening credits.

The film really worked for me and is very clever in it's dialog and structure, but didn't have that feeling of being too clever for it's own good that you seem to encounter from time to time in films. The clever nature didn't seem to draw attention to itself. Added to all that, it looked wonderful(It was shot by Matthew Liabotique) and at many times felt and sounded like a homage to old films from the 70's. It even included mention of Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico by characters in the film.

I didn't have the ending figured out either and was pleasantly surprised too with how it wrapped up. Also there were even a few nods to Spike Lee's previous films via some props in the film that were quite amusing to see.

It's worth a viewing if you're looking for something this weekend at the cinema.