Jason Stratham stars as Terry Leather, an East London car dealer who’s in up to his ears in debt to a local mob boss. Tired of having goons coming over to his car lot, where they smash up his inventory in an effort to make him pay up sooner, Terry listens to a proposition that’s made to him by Martine Love (Saffron Burrows), and old friend. She wants to know if Terry’s interested in robbing a local bank in the area. It seems that Martine has been dating a fellow who’s involved in the renovation of the bank’s security systems, and she knows of an upcoming window of opportunity where the bank will not have any alarm system at all--making it the perfect time for a heist.
The deal requires Terry and his crew to break into the bank after hours and steal the valuables in the safety deposit boxes located within a vault downstairs. It sounds like a great deal to Terry…almost too good to be true, in fact. But he agrees to do the job with Martine, and they set up a team of their friends. They take over an empty shop that’s just down the street from the bank and use it as a base of operations. It’s where they plan to dig an underground tunnel directly to the vault. But just when all is looking good, Terry runs into a few major bumps in the road.
As I’ve stated in my review for Inside Man, I love heist movies, and The Bank Job is one of the best. Taking place in 1971, it’s actually based on a true story, and involves more twists and turns than you can imagine. And, unlike most heist movies, the suspense isn’t over when the job is--in fact, at this point, director Rodger Donaldson is just warming up. Robbing the contents of safety deposit boxes may bring in a nice haul, but its an act that also exposes many high-powered skeletons that are better off left in the closet. And Donaldson does a great job at constantly building up the suspense while still keeping things credible.
Jason Stratham is perfectly cast as the local tough guy who’s looking for that one big score, so he can improve life for his family. Saffron Burrows is also very good as Martine, a sultry beauty who knows far more than she’s letting on. And David Suchet, better known to TV mystery fans as Agatha Christie’s famous Belgian sleuth Poirot, is excellent here as Lew Vogel, a ruthless gangster whose forte is porn. The film comes with a commentary, as well as several good documentaries for special features. The Bank Job may start out as a typical heist film, but once its gets rolling, it becomes a real thrill ride that’s vastly entertaining to watch.
--SF
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