Spike Lee borrows a page from Woody Allen’s recent book for the heist drama Inside Man, in which the idiosyncratic director (Do the Right Thing) plays servant to genre material (as Allen did with Match Point). The result reminds us that even the most familiar of movies needn’t always be formulaic. Denzel Washington (as the cop), Clive Owen (as the robber) and Jodie Foster (as someone in between) play a series of entertaining shell games with each other, while Lee makes most of his signature touches – an eye for racial tension, a stylish visual scheme – as subtle as possible.
