The Manhattan Trust Bank is taken over by Dalton Russell and his crew; they take the patrons and staff hostage and begin the execution of a perfect heist.

Detectives Keith Frazier and Bill Mitchell, NYPD hostage negotiators, are assigned to help Captain John Darius of the Emergency Services Unit diffuse the situation and ensure the safe release of the hostages.

The dubious interest of the bank’s chairman, Arthur Case, and the suspicious appearance of power player Madeline White lead Frazier to believe there’s more going on than meets the eye.

The unraveling of this plot is done layer by layer; each mystery that is solved becomes replaced with another. Motives are questionable and at times actions don’t match words, which only makes the whole scenario more intriguing.

The very best thing about this movie is the dialogue. It is realistic with bits of every day humor and the execution makes it believable. Considering the fact that two of the main actors are British using American accents I say that is fantastic. This leads me to the acting; each of the principal cast members delivered outstanding performances. I expected nothing less. Clive Owen does the part of brooding man in charge so well and Denzel Washington seems completely in his element playing the haggard detective one step behind the bad guy.

If anything makes this movie less appealing it is the run time of 128 minutes. There were intermittent scenes of interrogations that add to the mystery but were ultimately unnecessary and upset the flow, though only slightly. Denzel Washington’s character gives a summary of those interrogations towards the end of the film relaying the pertinent information. I could tell you how I would have handled it but that is neither here nor there. This is a Spike Lee Joint and he did what he wanted to do with it.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age