Like a jigsaw puzzle that gets harder as you try to fit the pieces together, “Inside Man” is an old-school, gritty drama that is endlessly entertaining and has the star power for box office success. It’s the type of mind-bending fun that revels in its own self-aggrandizing excitement and complexity, then hits you over the head with a rousing climax and leaves you smiling as the credits role. More movies should be this ambitious.   

Denzel Washington is Keith Frazier, a New York City detective with personal problems who’s called into duty as a hostage negotiator when a prominent Manhattan bank is getting robbed by a man named Dalton Russell (Clive Owen). Russell, who claims he has planned “the perfect heist,” has taken about 50 hostages and is ostensibly biding his time until his demands are met and he and his crew can make a safe escape. Helping Frazier are his partner, Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor), and police Captain John Darius (Willem Dafoe).

Things are much more complicated than they seem, however. The bank’s CEO, Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer), has some invaluable items in a safe deposit box that must be protected at all costs, and doesn’t trust any of his closest associates to know the box’s contents. Instead, he turns to Madeline White (Jodie Foster), a feisty power-broker so well-connected that you’d think she could start World War III simply because the president owes her a favor.

But an interesting thing develops as the story lines converge: slowly, it becomes clear that something much more devious than the obvious is going on, and that it’s far from a “normal” bank robbery. Making things more difficult (and fun) to figure out is that all the actors play things straight, lending not so much as a hint for what’s to come.

The film will remind some of “Dog Day Afternoon” (which is directly referenced at one point) and other crime/heist thrillers, all of which were undoubtedly an influence on first-time screenwriter Russell Gewirtz. But as deliciously convoluted as the script is, the film thrives because of Spike Lee’s inspired direction. Not only does he keep things going at a swift pace, he and cinematographer Matthew Libatique also move the camera with ease and fluidity, which in turn keeps the action churning at an up-tempo pace. Terence Blanchard’s score is appropriately grandiose and dramatic, and Lee peppers the opening and closing credits with a catchy Bollywood tune.

Those who are often turned off by the melodramatic racism in Lee’s films should know that is not an issue here. Much like Lee’s last great film, “The 25th Hour,” race is merely a small part of the layered, richly complex narrative. To watch the film is to see a great filmmaker at the top of his craft.

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