Inside Man: Mystery Suspense

Movie Review: Inside Man (2006) on Netflix 👏

In this suspenseful bank-heist movie, Inside Man pits Denzel Washington as a skilled police detective against Clive Owen as a well-planned bank robber and Jodie Foster as a highly motivated negotiator for Christopher Plummer, the man with something to hide. Call it a high-stakes game of chess for everyone. (See the movie trailer below.)

    It seems like an ordinary day at this mid-city bank, when a van load of "painters" arrives. But all hell breaks loose when they exchange paint cans for machine guns and start yelling commands and firing shots. Everything goes into lockdown as bank employees and customers are ordered to strip down to their underwear and put on matching painter outfits, caps, and masks. They become hostages, herded into small groups and sequestered on the floor in separate rooms. Anyone who doesn't follow orders is slapped around, beaten, and threatened within an inch of their lives. 

    Police get a hint there's a problem and arrive. Communications is set up with the robbers, but nothing is quite as it seems. It's up to police to figure out who the robbers are, what they want, and how to shut down the steal. But the robbers aren't playing by the usual rules.

    The founder of the bank steps in to offer police any help, but he's shoved aside. He contacts a high-power broker he's used before to speak with the robbers. There's a certain box in the bank he doesn't want anyone to see, which otherwise could be ruinous to his business. She must see to its security at all costs. A high-dollar payoff to the thieves is considered.

    Things seem to be going just as the thieves planned, but the police detective just can't let it go. Does it matter? The movie title matters. You'll have to watch it to get it—but careful, it's not what you think.

    Inside Man movie trailer via YouTube:

Knives Out: In the Tradition of an Agatha Christie Who Done It, But Better!

Movie Review: Knives Out (2019)
Version: Amazon Prime rental

In the mood for a good mystery? In the style of an Agatha Christie who-done-it? With an ensemble of strange characters all of whom are prime suspects but only one surely must of done it? A ring of clueless policemen but one immensely smart privately consulting detective with at least one irritating quirk who can't quite figure out the crime-defining question but is always on the cusp of finding the answer? Oh, and the victim -- the irascible old man everyone has a reason to kill! Well, that's Knives Out in a nutshell!

It features the usual cast of notables. Christopher Plummer is the victim, one famous mystery writer Harlan Thrombey. Did he commit suicide or was he killed by any of a number of family members or family staff in a position and with a reason to slit his throat? There is daughter Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her husband Richard Drysdale (Don Johnson), and ungrateful grandson Ransom (Chris Evans). They've been living off the old man's fortune too long, to his disappointment. Son Walt Thrombey (Michael Shannon) ran the old man's publishing house but was never allowed to run with his instincts and always felt held back in his father's shadow. His son Jacob (Jaeden Martell) was a spoiled family muckraker who enjoyed inciting a family squabble. Granddaughter Meg Thrombey (Katherine Langford) was the apple of her grandfather's eye, dutifully sending a six-figure check to cover her college tuition, until he discovered her mother Joni (Toni Collette) was double billing the accountant and stealing from dear old granddad. That leaves housekeeper Fran (Edi Patterson) who was discovered with a blackmail note and nurse Marta (Ana de Arnas) who was the last person to see Harlan alive. Who could solve this difficult crime? Why, the privately consulting detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) with the irritating Southern gentlemanliness. And so he goes after the clues and that one remaining question he can't quite solve till the very end.

Now, watching a Brit like Craig handle the Southern drawl and charm with such adeptness, after years of watching him play steely-eyed James Bond, was a revelation of his acting skills. He totally took on that role and won the character. He vied with Jamie Lee Curtis, with her verve and sparkle, for steeling the show. It should be noted that Frank Oz of Muppets fame came out of whole cloth to play a human attorney.

The only thing I can compare this film to is Murder on the Orient Express or perhaps Clue, mysteries with large ensemble casts and celebrity roles. It has that look and feel. And so you cannot take it seriously as a mystery, although the conclusion is a surprise. Still, it was a fun story and worth a watch. Jamie Lee Curtis is always fun to watch, Daniel Craig is interesting in this new role, Chris Evans gets to stretch his creative legs in this role, and Toni Collette is delicious in her character. Christopher Plummer commands the screen. Just for their performances, it's worth the watch.

So here's the gist of the story. Harlan Thrombey is a famous mystery writer. His family returns to the "ancestral home" to celebrate his 85th birthday. The next morning his private nurse discovers he has died and investigating police surmise Harlan has committed suicide. But private detective Benoit Blanc, anonymously hired by a mysterious source, attends a follow-up interview of those present that evening, and he has questions. He discovers each of the family members had reason to want Harlan Thrombey dead. Grandson Ransom had left the party early that night but returns late to answer questions and so also becomes one of the suspects. Through flashbacks we learn truths about some of the testimony and about other events that give context to occurrences that night, including an important role nurse Marta played. Even up to the end, all isn't as it seems. Of course! In the last moment, Benoit Blanc discovers the answer to his final question and the culprit is revealed.

As is always so with these ensemble casts, everyone is not just a suspect but every clue is a misdirect. And the job of the viewer is to listen intently without getting snookered. Knives Out is probably one of the better written who-done-its. I think you will agree. Perhaps when it fades to credits, you will find that's the real reveal at the end.

The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens Changed the Way We View Christmas

Movie Review: The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)
Version: Library borrow

The Man Who Invented Christmas is really a film for the holiday season. It recently released as a DVD so we just watched it. Although you can wait to see it sometime closer between Thanksgiving and Christmas, now is a good time to see it, too.

We likely are all familiar with Charles Dickens, the author of A Christmas Carol. Certainly, we all know the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, the three spirits, and how a miserable, miserly old man learned the true spirit of Christmas and became a more compassionate human being. What most of us don't know is the story about how Dickens came to write the story. That's what The Man Who Invented Christmas is all about.

In 1843, Charles Dickens was coming off the tremendous success of his book Oliver Twist. Then he had a few flops and his career as a writer seemed to be on the wane. His finances were hurting and he struggled to write his next great novel. This film explores his struggles, both to write A Christmas Carol, and a demon deep inside himself that became the greatest block to finishing the novel that would change the way the world perceived how we celebrate Christmas and the struggles of the poor.

Charles Dickens (played by Dan Stevens) is a fairly happy family man with a brood of noisy children in a large home in the heart of busy London. He is easily distracted by their noises and demands quiet. And his father John Dickens (played by Jonathan Pryce) is a constant distraction, so he has paid for a home for his parents in the country, even provided a stipend for them to keep them there. Yet John Dickens manages to seep back into London for a bothersome visit, much to Charles's irritation. Meanwhile, redecorating his home, Charles finds himself in need of more money and his publisher is in want of another book before they will give him more money. Unable to reach agreement on a book idea, Charles decides to finance it himself, going to a money-grubbing lender with a high financing rate. But this doesn't deter Charles. What looms greater than the lending rate is the looming publishing deadline -- six weeks to write and print the book before Christmas! Charles sends his friend John Forster (played by Justin Edwards) to help make arrangements, including finding an illustrator.

And so off Charles Dickens goes to write his book, fresh without a real concept. Thus we delve into his creative process. He meets people whose names and characteristics he gathers as grist for characters. He hears people say unsettling or encouraging things that become mill for the grindstone for dialogue. A happy older couple dancing in the street become models for the Fizzywigs. And then there's Ebenezer Scrooge (played by Christopher Plummer), who seeps in from the recesses of a dark doorway as Charles works in his study, and they play off each other as the character forms himself in Charles's mind. Little by little, you other characters from the story join the chorus of voices helping Charles Dickens talk out the story and tease out its plots and themes. Should Tiny Tim die? Shouldn't Scrooge save him? Why would he do that? Can a man change? It really is an amazing look into the way a writer works and how a story develops. And then there's the moment an author develops writer's block!

What is keeping Charles Dickens from writing the final chapter, the ending of A Christmas Carol? It turns out there is a secret buried in his worst nightmares, a horrific memory from his childhood from which he cannot escape. And until he resolves that past he cannot resolve his story.

The Man Who Invented Christmas is many things. It's about an amazing nineteenth century author. It's about memorable classic characters. It's about great actors playing well written parts -- Jonathan Pryce is wonderful as the scoundrel of a father and Christopher Plummer is brilliant as an irascible and scheming Scrooge. But the art direction of this film is wonderful, too, taking you deep into the winding alleyways and bustling streets and dark pubs and other public places of Dicken's time. There is also the disturbingly dark and dank children's workhouse where Dicken's spent a part of his childhood to contend with. All this makes the film come alive and breathe as if you were actually there, looking over their shoulders.

In addition to being the story about how A Christmas Carol came to be written, it is also a story about how a popular author came to change the way the world sees Christmas and how it changed the way the world responds to need. You will see that at the end of the film, before the closing credits. It really is an incredible true story. He really did invent Christmas, the Christmas we still know and love in our own time. See and show it to your own family.