The Bank Job

There's a certain straight-forwardness I appreciated about The Bank Job. The movie doesn't get bogged down in flashy editing, or camera tricks like some recent heist films have. This is a movie that's confident in its own story, as well it should be. In bringing the story of one of the most infamous bank heists in Britain's history, director Roger Donaldson (The World's Fastest Indian) and screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Franais (Across the Universe), gets their audience hooked with a pace that moves through the film's increasingly complex plot with ease, hitting very few snags along the way.

Terry Leather (Jason Statham) is a family man struggling to run a car business, and forget his criminal past in 1971 London. (He still has ties to his old days, however, and is not above fixing the speedometers on his used cars.) Into his life steps Martine Love (Saffron Burrows), a woman from his past with a proposition for a seemingly sure-fire get rich scheme. She proposes that Terry, along with old friends and accomplices Kevin (Stephen Campbell Moore) and David (Daniel Mays), get a crew together to pull off a bank heist where they will tunnel into the bank's safety deposit vault from the basement of an abandoned store just two doors down. The crew is formed, and the plan seemingly goes off without a hitch, though Terry quickly begins to suspect that Martine has other plans than just stealing money and riches. It seems that what Martine is really after is a safe deposit box that holds some incriminating information for some very powerful people. Terry and his friends find themselves drawn into a deadly string of blackmail, double crosses, and buried secrets that a lot of people would prefer remain buried.

The Bank Job is a movie that doesn't sweat the details, but at the same time, is careful not to let the characters go ignored. I walked into the movie completely unknowing about the original event, and found myself increasingly intrigued as each detail was revealed. Based on my own personal research after seeing the film, it would appear that most of the screenplay is speculation, and as the movie states in its closing subtitles, the names have been changed "to protect the guilty". Still, there is a ring of truth throughout The Bank Job that made me think that yes, it could have really happened this way. It's a good thing that the filmmakers have decided to tell this story in a clear and concise manner, because besides the bank heist itself, we also have a violent druglord/"black power" activist, crooked cops, porn kings with criminal ties, and a lot of cover ups vying for our attention. Surprisingly, it never becomes overwhelming. This is due mostly to the fact that, aside from a couple early scenes that jump back and forth in time settings, the movie doesn't mess around with the chronology, and just gives us the story straight. It also lets us into the individual world of Terry and his friends, making them appear as actual people, rather than characters caught in a twisting crime caper.

The movie also doesn't take itself entirely seriously, which is almost a must in a film such as this. It has a lot of fun with the fact that these are petty conmen, not professional bank robbers, and they are likely to make mistakes. The humor feels natural. These guys are not bunglers or idiots, just people who sometimes feel like they're in over their heads, and we laugh with them. More importantly, it does a great job of creating a feeling of suspense, without hitting us over the head. The simple shot of seeing a police car casually moving by the outside of the abandoned store where the men make their base of operations actually managed to make me tense up a little, which made me realize just how effective this movie was. There's an effective subplot where a man with a ham radio just happens to accidentally pick up the walky talky signal of the men as they are digging the tunnel from the store's basement to the bank's vault. He hears Terry's conversations with a man placed on the roof across the street, who acts as lookout during the job itself, and part of the suspense is wether or not the man with the radio will notify the police or not. It's a minor character, but it's important, as he not only sets part of the film in motion, but he creates the right level of tension that things could go wrong at any moment. The movie keeps on grabbing our attention in little and subtle ways such as this, and the end result is always more exciting than any shootout scene I've seen recently.

The Bank Job's main cast is made up mostly unrecognizable actors, which I think is a smart move on the part of the filmmakers, as it adds to the realism. The most recognizable face in the cast is lead star, Jason Statham, who has been grooming himself to be a major action star in films such as War and The Transporter. While his portrayal of Terry Leather is not far removed from some of his past roles, he gets to show a little bit more of a human side here. He is a family man who is genuinely afraid for his safety, and the safety of those around him once he starts to realize just what is going on. Terry is the way he is due to the hand life has given him up to the point we initially meet him. But, we also get the sense that there is a different, and perhaps, better person waiting to get out if he could just have the chance. This is probably Mr. Statham's most accessible role yet, but when you consider his last role was as a heroic turnip farmer saving a fantasy kingdom, that's probably not much of a stretch. Equally engaging is Saffron Burrows, who makes her Martine Love much more than the pretty face her character initially comes across as.

The Bank Job most likely will not linger long after you've seen it, but it does a great job of transporting you into the action and getting you involved while you're watching it. I personally feel that the true test of any film based on real events is how interested it makes you into learning about the real story. The fact that it inspired me to look up some info on the actual crime after watching it speaks for itself. This is a movie that doesn't exactly rewrite the book on heist pictures, but that doesn't make it any less fun to watch.

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