THE BANK JOB

Lionsgate
Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey Karten
Grade: B
Directed by: Roger Donaldson
Written By: Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais
Cast: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, Peter De Jersey, Daniel Mays, James Faulkner, Alki David, Michael Jibson, Richard Lintern, Don Gallagher, David Suchet
Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 2/11/08
Opens: March 7, 2008

Former bank robber and Brooklyn resident Willie Sutton is famous for two quotes. He carried a Thompson submachine gun with him on his jobs and said that “You can’t rob a bank on charm and personality.” When asked why he robbed banks, he replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” There’s a lot of money to be found in the safe deposit boxes of at Lloyds Bank in London during the early seventies—at least five millions pounds’ worth—but to some high-level officials in Scotland Yard, there’s something even more important. In presenting details of a true story,Roger Donaldson, who directs “The Bank Job” from a script by writing team Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, shows how a number of people are far more interested in photos than anything else the bank might offer. Case in point: pictures of at least one important member of Parliament caught patronizing a brothel and others involving a scandalous affair that Princess Margaret was having on a Caribbean Island. (Details of the affair are not enumerated in the movie. While Margaret’s marriage to Lord Snowdon was heading south, the princess headed west to the island of Mustique with one Llewellyn, a gardener seventeen years her junior. During the wild parties she hosted on Mustique, Margaret photographed Llewellyn, Colin Tennant and Nicholas Courtney naked on the beach and may have allowed photos to be taken of herself. Since the matter was hushed up thanks to deals made between Scotland Yard and a small-time thief involved in a big-time payoff, the extent of the action has not come to light to this day.)

In a story that moves so quickly that a second viewing may be necessary to figure out who betrayed whom and why, “The Bank Job” hones in on Jason Statham (“Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”) in the role of Terry, a small-time thief and car mechanic in debt to gangsters, about to lose both his knees with seemingly no way out. When Martine Love (Saffron Burrows), a old flame and former model, offers a proposition that could solve his considerable financial problems, he’s all ears. As in a typical caper movie, Terry rounds up a team, each with a special job to do, making plans to burrow under a London store with high-speed drills and other equipment and strip the safe deposit boxes bare. Unknown to Martine and the gang members, there’s an ulterior motive to the robbery, as one M-15 has been charged with the responsibility of wresting the unsavory photos from a safe deposit box, pictures being used by radical activist and drug smuggler Michael X (Peter De Jersey) to blackmail the British government into keeping away from him and his activities.

As it turns out, the bank robbers are among the most honest folks in the story. Amateurs for the most part, they will ultimately pull off the job but lose one of their own to low-lifes like porn king Lew Vogel (David Suchet), who for his part is intent on recovering a ledger of payoffs to the police which he keeps in a safe deposit in the same bank. As the film concludes, we’re led to believe that all sorts of shady money and jewelry are stored in the Lloyds Bank, as at least one hundred box renters never came forward to itemize their losses.

Filled with British talent including Stephen Campbell Moore (“The History Boys”), Keeley Hawes (“A Cock and Bull Story”), Colin Salmon (“Die Another Day”) and James Faulkner (“Colour Me Kubrick”), “The Bank Job” is one of those pics that have us sympathizing with the robbers, hardly a bunch of hardened criminals but rather men and a woman honorable enough to divvy up the loot as promised with no sign that any are plotting to kill their team-mates to get a larger share. By contrast, some baddies are working for the government determined to get their hands on the incriminating evidence of hanky-panky. One fellow posing as a Black Panther–Robin Hood type who is a killer determined to “free my brothers in Trinidad held in bondage by the British” is among the shadiest of the lot.

Nowadays news of scandals among the British royalty, some even suggesting that higher-ups had a role in murdering Princess Diana, is so common that no-one in the audience will be shocked by the goings-on among the aristocracy. The film, flawlessly acted albeit with some lame dialogue mixed in with the gems, introduces so many baddies thinking little of betraying their relationships that the audience may well find difficult sorting out what’s what. On the whole, “The Bank Job” has enough originality to distinguish it from run-of-the-mill caper flicks to make this a fun gambol.

Rated R. 110 minutes. © 2008 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online