Inside Man

With echoes of David Mamet, The Usual Suspects, Dog Day Afternoon and the 1990 Bill Murray comedy Quick Change, no one is who they seem in Spike Lee's slickly executed heist thriller.

Characters conceal ulterior motives and their words are carefully chosen, laden with hidden meaning.

Inside Man is narrated by the bank robber himself, played by Clive Owen.

"My name is Dalton Russell," he smirks. "Recently I planned and set in motion events to execute the perfect bank robbery.

"Why? Because I can..."

I would advise you close your eyes for this opening monologue. Lee gives away one of the major plot twists in these opening frames, which diminishes the deviousness of the script by first-time writer Russell Gewirtz.

Russell's opponent is NPYD hostage negotiator Detective Keith Frazier (Washington), a man who enjoys living on the edge. His cunning is tested to the limit during the tense stand off between police and the robber. The encounter is poised on a knife-edge: One wrong decision could lead to tragedy.

The siege takes an unexpected twist when enigmatic Manhattan power broker Madeline White (Foster), secretly in the employ of Arthur Case (Plummer), the chairman of the bank's board of directors, interrupts negotiations.

Lee directs with an assured hand, including a couple of well-paced action sequences, but like us, he's more interested in focusing on his top calibre cast as they compete for our attention.