Review: The Bank Job B
A Film Evaluate By Stefan Vlahov
Director Roger Donaldson's fathom-up to his touching masterpiece The World's Fastest Indian is the able, dirty, and therefore appropriately named heist thriller The Bank Job. It is a obscure based on an infamous heist-gone-iniquitous in 1971 in which Terry (Jason Statham), a negligible-time scammer is offered the job of a lifetime by exquisite model Martine Love (the gallant Saffron Burrows), and during its execution, uncovers secrets that concern many British politicians, including the Sovereign family. Donaldson followers may in consideration of this film as a natural entry in the filmmaker's varying and elegance-spanning career. For me, The Bank Job is underwhelming compared to Donaldson's prior to effort on an emotional and technical level, but his gift behind the camera is evident from the get-go and while I would have liked it if he took his spell the way he did with Indian, the film still capitalizes on his vast handling of dialogue and characterization. Donaldson, predictably does not catalogue a lot of action scenes in this film, which may undo Statham fans, but lends the film over more credibility to the point that it actually feels like a upright retelling of the heist. Too bad the production design does not reside up to the great storytelling. The film's unauthentic, too modern, look creates a encounter in the minds of the audience as to what they are actually watching - a mettlesome account of a real event, or altogether a fantastical depiction of a bank robbery. Another industrial gripe I have with the film is the overbearing and too-serious get laid by J. Peter Robinson. Robinson scores even the lighter moments with a boldness that takes the viewer away from the two shakes of a lamb's tail, rendering it mostly ineffective. One wonders how much of this is due to Roger Donaldson, whose films have oft-times been quite serious. Heck, this may be his funniest venture since Cadillac Man 18 years ago. Yet, in keeping with the building of his last five films, The Bank Job starts out slow...
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