THE POPCORN REEL FILM REVIEW/"The Bank Job"
Terry's All Gold Robbers: Robbing From The
Rich To Scandalize The Powerful in 1971 London
By
Omar P.L. Moore/March 7,
2008
Give us a Job! From left to right:
Jason Statham as Terry, Stephen Campbell Moore as Kevin, James Faulkner as Guy,
Alki David as Bambas, and Daniel Mays as Dave, in "The Bank Job", which opened
across North America today, while continuing its theatrical run in London.
(Photo: Jack English/Lionsgate)
Roger Donaldson's "The Bank Job" is a better bit of entertainment than previews
may lead you to believe. For almost two hours it is thoroughly engaging,
taut, suspenseful and most of all, funny, with a mix of sex and politics, not
for good measure but for context as the scandal of Princess Margaret, caught in
flagrante delicto in some notorious photographs with at least two men in the
early 1970's converges with a volatile British landscape which includes the
corruption-plagued Tory Government, the Black Power Movement and the exploits of
several working class bank robbers in London in 1971, all true stories upon
which Mr. Donaldson's film is based.
"The Bank Job", which is distributed by Lionsgate and opened today in the U.S.
and Canada, doesn't always balance these three story threads deftly but for all
the controversies raised in recent weeks by some in Britain about the film
(which is already playing there), its screenplay by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais offers diverse characters, intriguing scenarios and a hint of something
about to happen around the corner, somewhere down the road or anywhere on the
high street.
In other words, "The Bank Job" is always interesting and keeps you guessing,
thinking and entertained.
Jason Statham, who has made a career of starring mostly in B-movie-type action
films (he was in "In The Name of The King" in January) fits very well here in a
slightly different role as Terry, the leader of a motley crew of men and
women who made off with $5 million worth of jewels and cash from safe deposit
boxes in a vault at Lloyds Bank on Baker Street in Central London in September
1971. Terry has a car dealership which is struggling, especially under the
weight of two petty criminal toughs who are continually badgering him to pay
debts he owes to a local East London gangster. Mr. Statham displays an
oddly rugged charm as Terry, a somewhat unassuming character even as his guard
is always up. Saffron Burrows (from "Reign Over Me"), always a distinctive
and engaging performer, brings flair, smarts and cool sophistication here as Martine
Love, the lone female representative of the bank heist crew. Smaller
speaking roles go to other British actors (such as Stephen Campbell Moore, James
Faulkner and Daniel Mays) who are memorable in displaying their characters'
idiosyncratic ways. David Suchet is unrecognizable as Lew Vogel, the
manager of a pornography racket. Mr. Suchet, an accomplished veteran
British actor whom American audiences may remember as the whip-smart New York
City police detective in the mid-1990's film "A Perfect Murder" with Michael
Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow and Viggo Mortensen) is again terrific here, displaying
more a ruthlessness than the smarminess one might expect from a chief purveyor
of smut and sleaze.
The pacing of "The Bank Job" is dynamic, energetic and ironic, something that
many of Mr. Donaldson's films ("Cocktail", "No Way Out", "The Bounty", "Dante's
Peak", etc.) never seem to lack. Sexual vim and vigor pulsate through early parts
of "The Bank Job" when the sultry Seventies of a vibrant London are on
display (good cinematography by Michael Coulter)
and the scandals of VIPs in government are flaunted. Numerous real-life
characters from these seedy underworlds and political groups appear,
including Sonia Bern, a famous madam (played here by Sharon Maughan) who ran
brothels and sex clubs in London for the rich and famous; Michael X (Peter De
Jersey), the leader of the Black Power Movement in Britain; Gale Benson (Hattie Morahan), a woman who was actually the daughter of an Tory member of parliament
-- a daughter who is cavorting with the Movement either as a spy or a lover; and
the British Secret Service agency MI5, which has its own agenda in these sordid
affairs. And Colin Salmon, a renowned British actor who played the black
deputy minister to Judi Dench's M character in several James Bond films (and was once
rumored to be in the running to play Bond himself at one point, has a cameo here
as Hakim Jamal, one of the members of the Black Power Movement. His voice
is distinctive, but Mr. Salmon himself, like Mr. Suchet, is almost
unrecognizable.)
Again,
"The Bank Job" is indeed based on a true story, but the film does engage in
speculation about some of the real-life participants where details are
incomplete, adding to the mystique and legend of the ribald and riveting
spectacles that occurred in the early 1970's in London.
For all of its incidents, "The Bank Job" never becomes a farce, though the final 30
minutes are an all-hands-on-deck frenzy, but a funny one at that, where loose
threads come together but not quite all the way airtight. Mr. Donaldson's direction
however, is fluid and his best moments arrive when he crafts scenes of
surveillance, tension and discovery -- where a stillness and a contemplation of
certain events are at a knife's edge -- and there are several such moments in
"The Bank Job".
The film's resolution may be a touch muddled, but overall with "The Bank Job" --
just like a good pint of Guinness ale -- the cream rises to the top of this
impressive celluloid crime caper.
"The Bank Job" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for
sexual content, nudity, violence and language. The film's running time is one hour
and 51 minutes.
Related:
Roger Donaldson talks to The Popcorn Reel about making "The Bank Job"
Copyright The Popcorn Reel. PopcornReel.com. 2008. All Rights
Reserved.