SPIKE LEE GETS 'INSIDE' THE HEIST GENRE.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

"Inside Man" marks Spike Lee's first attempt to make a heist movie, and it isn't exactly surprising that the elements that make the movie work the way Lee captures the blaring racial dynamics of New York, the loosey-goosey acting, the sardonic humor have nothing to do with the genre. In fact, as caper movies go, "Inside Man" is a botched job. But it's almost always interesting until the end and that counts for something.

Lee, working from a script from first-timer Russell Gewirtz, grabs you by the shirtcollar at the outset, creating an unsettling mood as we watch a group of masked robbers take control of a bank in Manhattan's the financial district. Exits are sealed, hostages are corralled, demands are made. Detectives Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) and Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor) arrive to negotiate and, if need be, detonate.

Naturally, there's going to be a rub: The criminal mastermind of this endeavor, Dalton Russell (Clive Owen), seems less interested in the loot than in the contents of a certain safe deposit box. This development turns the bank's self-possessed elderly president (Christopher Plummer) into a quivering human Jell-O mold, prompting a call to a politically connected fixer Detective Frazier.

The film's leisurely pace poses no problem until the end, when Lee is unable to tie up the plot's loose ends in a manner that's either timely or satisfying. The fact is, the whole thing is completely implausible and what pleasure we're supposed to get from the involvement of Foster's character never arrives because the role is so thinly written. She's cool. Fine. But Harvey Keitel's Winston "The Wolf" from "Pulp Fiction" would eat her alive and spit out the bones.

Foster, though, is only on screen for a few minutes, leaving the bulk of the work for the boys, the gender Lee has always been more comfortable with, anyway. Washington is at the top of his game, effortlessly conveying Frazier's go-with-the-flow street smarts, charisma and humor. He badgers the hostages through flash-forwards, so it's clear (sort of) from the get-go that most of the bystanders made it out OK toys with the criminals, sweet-talks a long-suffering girlfriend. Washington acts fast and free, unhindered even by the movie's occasionally loopy logic. It's his best work since he won the Oscar for "Training Day." Take, for instance, the moment when Frazier patiently listens to a Sikh man who has been clearlywronged by the cops. He had his turban removed and wants it back; he complains that since 9/11 he can't go anywhere without engendering suspicion or harassment. "But I bet you can get a cab," Frazier says. It's funny. It's uncomfortable.

It's true. And there are a good dozen moments like that among the teeming masses in Lee's New York, which makes you (kind of) love "Inside Man" even when it doesn't quite finish the job it intended to do.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

INSIDE MAN - Three stars

(R: language, some violence)

Starring: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster.

Director: Spike Lee.

Running time: 2 hr. 10 min.

In a nutshell: The robbery itself is the least interesting thing in Spike Lee's heist movie, which features a great lead turn by Denzel Washington and the filmmaker's usual sharp observations of a racially diverse New York.

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Photo:

Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) comes face to face - almost - with criminal masterminds Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) in ``Inside Man,'' also starring Jodie Foster.