Inside Man

Spike Lee, USA, 2006
3 out of 4 stars

A very engaging, dynamic film that ultimately doesn’t turn out to be about that much. Spike Lee always brings up a lot of interesting things, and this is not one of those films like Bamboozled that just ends up preaching ideas that, while compelling, don’t really add up to a working film. Instead, I would say that this film, if anything, has the opposite problem, which is that the ideas aren’t big enough. There’s a bit with an ultra-violent video game that is spot-on, but does it really have anything to do with the rest of the film? Not exactly. Lee does do a good job at conveying a strong impression of New York as an imperfect but nonetheless promising rainbow; not exactly new for him or his many fellow NYC-boosting directors, but at least in this instance I was sucked in by it instead of rolling my eyes… although that may just be the big screen.

The main problem here is the ending. This is where you find out what everything was all about, and you realize you’ve been holding out hope not so much that it will all tie together, but that it will tie together in a way that will matter, and I think it falls short in that regard. Also, some of the gimmicks in this part are a bit much… dare I say, too Hollywood? Mainly, the ending just drags. It’s not that anything happened that was so stupid or poorly executed that it made me really turn against the film, but it’s also not like it entirely lived up to its promise either. This makes me sound more down on it than I was, when in fact, I would actually recommend this film. It might also reward a repeat viewing, but it was more than two hours! Maybe he should have cut down the ending part.

Source: Universal 35mm print
13 April, 4:50 PM