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The Bank Job
Reviewed by Rich Drees
For years, heist and caper films have been trying to out do each
other, continually raising the bar on what seemingly impossible
methods a gang of crooks would go through to obtain their objectives
and the obstacles that get thrown in their path. Along the way
though, they began to strain one’s suspension of disbelief. Based on
a true story of a 1971 London heist, The Bank Job reminds us that
sometimes there is no substitute for as good a story as one that
could be found in real life.
Terry (Jason
Statham) is a small-time hood trying to go straight, but has not
been successful in extricating himself from London’s seamier
elements. His answer, though, may come in the form of a proposition
from an old friend, the lovely Martine (Saffron Burrows). She knows
of a bank whose alarms have been deactivated due to vibrations from
a nearby subway line constantly activating them. She proposes that
it would be simple to rent a store on the same block, tunnel under
the bank and then up to the bank’s vault to steal the contents of
the safety deposit boxes. She argues that they could get away with
it as no one really wants to let people know what they keep in their
deposit boxes.
But what Terry
and the crew he assembles for the heist don’t realize is that they
are merely pawns, being used by the government to retrieve
compromising blackmail photos of one of the Royal Family from one of
the safety deposit boxes. However, in their haul, they also manage
to snare a bookie’s ledger chronicling his protection payouts to the
local police and some film and photographs of various high-ranking
political figures taken by the madam of a rather high class house of
ill repute. The group soon find themselves scrambling to escape from
several angry factions, all willing to kill to get their respective
property back.
The screenplay, by Across The Universe scripters Dick Clement
and Ian La Frenais, manages to carefully juggle more than a dozen
characters important to the narrative, never losing track of any of
them. Director Roger Donaldson has a good track record of delivering
solid films such as No Way Out (1987) and Thirteen Days
(2000), and continues to do so with this film. Not one for flashy
camera moves or editing tricks, Donaldson manages to infuse the film
with a gritty aesthetic that vaguely recalls the heist and police
procedural films of the 1970s.
The fact that
Jason Statham can be a pretty decent actor is often obscured by his
choice in roles. Fortunately, he has plenty to work with her. Terry
isn’t quite the tough guy that Statham normally plays. He’s a guy
conflicted by trying to go straight for the sake of his wife and two
young daughters, but only sees that the best way to do that is to
commit one last crime. Statham’s characters are normally the type to
solve problems through violence, but here he barely throws a bunch
until towards the end of the film. It is a refreshing change to see
him play this more thoughtful type of tough guy and hopefully it
won’t be too long before we see him in a role like this again. |
