The Bank Job

The Bank Job

A decent little heist film directed by Roger Donaldson, The Bank Job should have done better at the box office. From what I remember, the marketing tried to make it out to be a 1970s British version of Oceans 11 - all hip and stylish and fun - but that is hardly the case. This film is grounded in reality, and evokes a gritty realism that benefits the movie immensely.

Based very loosely on a true story, The Bank Job is about the Baker Street Bank Raid. A former model named Marlene (Saffron Burrows) hires a group of petty crooks led by Terry Leather (Jason Statham) to break into Lloyd's Bank and steal the contents of all the safe deposit boxes. But the movie gets even more interesting after the robbery. Terry has opened a Pandora's Box - among the items he has stolen are dirty pictures of a royal princess being used by radical activist Michael X ( Peter De Jersey) as blackmail and coveted by MI5 government agents. He's also taken an incriminating accounting book from porn magnate Vogul (David Suchet, best known for his superb work as Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot). So now Terry and Co. have the police, radical activists, organized crime and government agents on their tale. All these plots are not strung together in an overly stylized way, but are told realistically. Donaldson does an admirable job of balancing all the converging plots and to his credit, I was never confused. It also helps that this story is loosely based on a real story - half the fun of the movie is trying to figure out what is real and what the filmmakers fictionalized. Surprisingly, more is real than you might think.

The movie certainly has its flaws. Jason Statham, as much as I like him, kind of sticks out. He does a acceptable job, but his acting just seems more suited to the wild and woolly Ritchie films or over-the-top fare like Crank and Transporter. Given the realistic tone of the rest of the film, I had trouble buying him as the lead. Also, the movie that has spent so much time reminding us of the gritty Brit films of the 1970s (like Get Carter) kind of wusses out in the end and goes a bit Hollywood - giving us an unnecessary and out-of-place fight scene and then wrapping up everything in a nice, little bow. That was a little disappointing.

But still, overall, The Bank Job is quite a nice, little movie. I definitely recommend it. I am hoping you will be pleasantly surprised like I was.

BEST LINE: Agent Tim Everett: "We are in this matter for the royal, er, portraits only. The proceeds and the pissoffs are your problem."

TRIVIA: If you blink, you'll miss him. But Mick Jagger plays one of the Lloyd Bank employees.

MVP: The main government agent is Tim Everett, a tall, tuxedo clad, raven-haired agent who flirts and smokes a lot. Remind you of someone? There is no doubt in my mind that this is supposed to evoke James Bond. And as played by Richard Lintern, Agent Everett doesn't play the role with even an ounce of irony or as an anti-007. On the contrary, Lintern plays him completely straight - if James Bond were real, he probably would be a whole lot like this guy. And that is fascinating to watch. When Daniel Craig retires, I think Lintern would be a nice choice. He's got the right combination of smugness and intelligence.