"The Bank Job" (2008) - Movie Review

Jason Statham has created his territory to be the rugged criminal with a heart. With thick Stubbles and eyes sharp, he has the charm to be the perfect nice law breaker we have seen for a while. Of course the team of Ocean has their territory drawn out but Statham is pitch perfect for the role of Terry Leather, one of the main players in the actual robbery happened in Baker Street, London during 1971. He has been typecast and he challenges to suit the character every time with the familiarity to the audience in a good way.

For once the heist film takes itself very seriously. Of course it has to since it is been labeled as based on true story. And in the actual happenings lives would have been lost and damages would have been done. Clean getaways are only consolation and disaster is imminent. The comic is subtle as it can be seen in our regular life. And suddenly it is fast paced, tactfully handled to have the gravity of the situation sit on us but we do not get time to evaluate it as it would have been for the robbers. As systematic and clandestine is the approach of these thieves, the plans are exposed to the exact people they hide from, knowingly or unknowingly. It is not a well thought fall for bait but luck and some authority over the situation help some of these petty cadre in the criminal chain to survive their life, with a fortune.

And what is it with sexy ladies and heist? Saffron Burrows who has the concealed attitude and the subtle stubbornness in holding on what she wants proposes the plan to her undying love Terry who is now a family man with two kids. His down to the sink business and the threats from the debt collectors is an easy answer to that. He assembles his crew and for once the job is talked and executed right away. It is not extremely complicated. Lease a shop nearby the bank and dug a tunnel to the safety box vault. The work is flesh and blood. They do it and that becomes the easy part. Opening the safety boxes is the key to the secrets of the popular and the unpopular. The game of control happens and it somehow resolves too, greatly to our surprise.

Roger Donaldson who also directed and adapted the real life events of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the White House internal chess game in “Thirteen Days” runs the same kind of game but with slick and style. The film’s setting is 70’s and he uses the iconic figures for the era than the costumes or set design. And it is not a choice for him not to choose the placement of those figures rather the film needs it.

The film diverse in the location and happenings of multiple stories and as it should and is expected converge. In the midst though there is no character study and it is the plot and the editing. The story would have had very minimal chances of finding its way unless for the quick drop and the other stories which meets everything else in its places. It does not happen as a coincidence. It is not missed or a confused funny misplacement of the robbed money but the scandalous boxes which uncovers many faces and lights on the corruption on the system.

The film works and it works very well. The 110 minutes runs so fast and the robbery feels like happened a long time ago as the players are caught up in the dangers. Donaldson knows that the suspense or the thrill in the robbery itself has been exhausted or in this case is simple as for the edge of the seat entertainer parameter but real hard labour for the thieves. And he seizes the aftermath of it. When the robbers are happy and carefree as they would have been, we even with expected disaster forget that. Donaldson breaks the comfort level of nobody is going to get hurt like a rip off the band aid from the wound. Fast, painful and wakes you shockingly.