Review: ‘Bank Job’ satisfies heist movie fans

Directed By: Roger Donaldson

Starring: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, Daniel Mays, James Faulkner, Alki David, Michael Jibson, Richard Lintern, Keeley Hawes, David Suchet

Rated: R

The “heist” movie comes in many flavors, from Quentin Tarantino’s down and dirty debut “Reservoir Dogs,” to Stephen Soderbergh’s gilded, glitzy star-packed “Ocean’s” trilogy, and combinations of the two such as Guy Ritchie’s “Snatch.”

Director Roger Donaldson – whose directorial style is hard to pin down – borrows a lot, including star Jason Statham, from the Guy Ritchie playbook for his latest film, “The Bank Job.”

The movie could easily have been called “The Walkie-Talkie Bank Job,” because that’s how the robbery on which it is loosely based was referred to in London’s Daily Mail newspaper in 1971. It made major headlines for four days, captured the imagination of Great Britain and then, mysteriously, all mention of the robbery disappeared from print, radio and TV. It seems the British government has a nifty little tool they can invoke called a “D notice,” used when there are matters of “national security” involved.

Many people at the time, and to this day, tend to believe the “national security” involved Princess Margaret in some rather compromising positions on a beach in Mustique with actor and gangster John Bindon.

The walkie-talkie part refers to the fact that a ham radio operator in London overheard members of the gang conversing with a lookout planted outside the bank. The trouble facing the authorities was, which bank? It was later discovered to be the Lloyds Bank branch in the Marylebone section of London, but not before the thieves made off with £500,000 in cash and jewels and, as the film suggests, some other very interesting items: pictures of Princess Margaret as well as a ledger kept by a sleazy pornographer containing the names, dates and amounts paid to crooked London cops.

Donaldson and company do a great job bringing all these elements together and, besides being packed with action and containing a good amount of plot twists, the film has its share of humor. The ragtag team of thieves here is a far cry from George Clooney and crew in the “Ocean’s” movies.

After a flashback scene (with glimpses of bare skin in the Caribbean) we jump to the present. Statham plays Terry Leather, a likable guy, happily married with two adorable kids. He owns a small auto dealership, and it becomes evident he owes money to a loan shark. Thugs come by regularly and smash a few cars as a warning. So, as happens in this type of film, the plot begins with a hapless chap needing money.

Enter Martine (the still-stunning Saffron Burrows), an old friend. She says she’s got a line on a perfect bank job. The bank has been having trouble with the subway underneath setting off the alarms, so the place is going to switch things around. They will be without an alarm for a few days. There’s a shop two doors down for rent and a tunnel can be dug.

So far so good. Terry enlists a few old pals ¬– not criminals, really, but guys who have stepped outside the law a time or two.

What Terry doesn’t know is that Martine has gotten in trouble for smuggling drugs. Her Majesty’s Secret Service, known as the MI5, has offered her a deal. There are photos in a safe deposit box, rented by a radical activist known as Michael X, that the royal family is eager to have in its possession. Of course the MI5s know they can bust the thieves as soon as the job is done, recover the loot, get the photos (Martine knows the box number) and all will be well.

What no one has counted on is the involvement of a major London sleazebag who is both a pornographer and pimp. He has a ledger in the same vault containing vital information on a number of coppers on his payroll. That group becomes the third side of the triangle.

All the while, Terry and his mates are planning what they will do with the loot, and Martine knows they won’t be getting any at all. And no one, not even the MI5, knows about the ledger.

It’s not as complicated as it sounds, and the film, which is less than two hours long, moves at a snappy pace – though not so fast that it doesn’t develop its characters and their relationships.

No one knows all of the details of what went on during the robbery, so the writers have had to take dramatic license with many of the details. But the basic premise – the walkie-talkies, the quelling of the story by the MI5 and Michael X’s involvement – is fact. He was executed in Trinidad in 1975 for the murder of a British woman working undercover in his organization.

As “heist” movies go, “The Bank Job” makes for satisfying viewing. If you like films such as those mentioned above, and even older British films like “The Lavender Hill Mob” and “The Day They Robbed The Bank of England,” you won’t be disappointed.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield freelance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.[[In-content Ad]]