The Bank Job


4/4

Starring: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Richard Lintern, Stephen Campbell Moore, Daniel Mays

Rated R for Sexual Content, Nudity, Violence and Language

“The Bank Job” is a crime thriller so twisted that every scene reveals a new twist until the end, and no player (and there are plenty of them) has anything go according to plan.  And it’s all true.

Small time crook Terry Leather (Statham) has gone clean and is running a used car dealership in East London.  Unfortunately, business is in the red and he’s in debt to some local loan sharks.  Then an old flame comes calling and offers him a proposition: a bank’s security system is about to be changed, leaving them a week to tunnel in and steal everything from the safety deposit boxes.  But what she isn’t telling Terry and his crew is that the bank robbery is an opportunity for the government to get some photos that could cause embarrassment for the royal family.  And that’s just the beginning.

This is a British crime thriller that is so complex and unpredictable that it puts “Inside Man,” another terrific heist movie where nothing is as it seems, to absolute shame.  But “The Bank Job” is superior in every way: the characters are more sympathetic, the plot is more complex, and we don’t have to wait till the end for the big reveal.  That comes in the middle, and it’s where things get really interesting.

The acting is superior.  Everyone’s favorite British badass Jason Statham has the lead role, and even though his accent is so thick that subtitles are a must, he shows some acting skill that we haven’t seen before.  He’s not a criminal by choice; he’s got a family but he desperately needs money.  Statham is great as the tough guy, but he’s surprisingly good in the more subtle emotional moments with his family.  Saffron Burrows, who gets far too few roles on this side of the Atlantic, is great as the shady, ex-model role.  She has feelings for Terry, but that’s in the past.  And the deception is subtly eating away at her.  Burrows is a master at subtle acting, and that’s what really helps her in this role.  Able support is given by every member of the very large supporting cast.  For a movie that has this many characters, they feel surprisingly well-developed, even if they are on screen for only a few short minutes.

It is a testament to the skill of Roger Donaldson that he is not only able to keep everything straight (the film is like a high stakes game of chess), but he is able to sufficiently flesh out his characters, generate hand-wringing suspense, and add in a little romance and comedy for seasoning.  True, the script (credited to Dick Clement and Ian Lafrenais respectively) is top notch, but many good scripts have been bungled by inept direction.  Fortunately, that doesn’t happen here.

The film is so good that the fact that it’s based on a true story is almost beside the point.  “The Bank Job” deserves to be ranked alongside all the great heist movies.

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