Written by: Susan Granger
http://www.susangranger.com

Spike Lee goes mainstream with this generic, cat-and-mouse game bank heist thriller that delves beneath power and politics. The story begins with a man calmly identifying himself as Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) describing how he pulled off the "perfect" crime and, obviously, lived to tell the tale. Dressed in painter's coveralls, he casually walks into the Wall Street office of Manhattan Trust Bank, followed by three, similarly dressed, masked, gun-toting accomplices. They capture more than 50 of the staff and customers, forcing them to shed their clothes and don painter's garb and masks. Meanwhile, soon-to-be-promoted NYPD detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) faces a corruption investigation involving the disappearance of $140,000 in drug money. Since the head hostage negotiator is out-of-town, much to the chagrin of the Emergency Services Unit Captain (Willem Dafoe), Frazier is called in to talk with Dalton, who delays but eventually demands buses and a jet. But canny Frazier believes he's stalling for time. The only question is: why?

Charismatic Clive Owen and convincing Denzel Washington deliver, as does Jodie Foster as a sleek, steely, Armani-clad shady-lady brought in to run interference by the bank's chairman (Christopher Plummer) who has a secret safe-deposit box there. 

Despite some perplexing plot holes, newcomer Russell Gewirtz has fashioned a clever, multi-layered script with an amusing surprise in the final scene. But Spike Lee's structural choice of intercutting gritty flash-forward scenes of Frazier interrogating hostages at a later date informs the audience that these people survive; that knowledge-------------------- dilutes the momentum and deflates the suspense. And while it's not about race relations, per se, there's still characteristically barbed Spike Lee social commentary.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Inside Man" is a straightforward, solid 7, filled with stylish patter and moral ambiguity.