Movie Review of Inside Man: A Spike Lee Joint Starring Denzel Washington

Academy Award winner Denzel Washington stars in Inside Man (2006), the latest, very highly anticipated Spike Lee Joint. The film can be classified as part heist, part mystery, and all riveting. It is the fourth project on which these two wizards of the modern film world have collaborated. The musical score is once again composed by the acclaimed New Orleans native, trumpeter Terence Blanchard.

Detective Keith Frazier (Washington) is a wise-ass brother with a less-than-perfect home life. He is under suspicion at work for a check cashing scheme, but when the Manhattan Trust Bank is literally taken over by Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) and crew, Frazier is the man. He deftly matches wits with the criminal mastermind in rapid-fire, point-counterpoint fashion. The stakes are high, but Frazier is down for the challenge.

Madeleine White (Jodie Foster), whose function is never clearly defined, is called in for her “special skills” by the bank’s CEO Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer), and suddenly one wonders “what is really going on!?” There are more twists than a salted pretzel, and the balance of power keeps shifting as the tables are turned and turned again. Both the audience and Detective Frazier are kept guessing until the somewhat surprising conclusion.

The cast is capably rounded out with major roles played by Willem Dafoe (Spiderman I and II) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Four Brothers) and lesser roles by Peter Gerety (Syriana) as an NYPD captain, Cassandra Freeman (Numb3rs) as Frazier’s girlfriend Sylvia, and newcomer Carlos Andrés Gómez.