Life > March 27, 2008

By Peter Youngblood | Staff writer

Thankfully one of my fellow OGB critics had already endured 10,000 BC, allowing me to write about a period piece with a little more factual accuracy. The ironic thing is that the “facts” in The Bank Job are based on information from an undisclosed source about a bank heist pulled in order to cover up a scandalous royal affair.

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Cynicism aside, I tell you this remarkable truth not just to poke fun at Roland Emmerich’s recent prehistorically-based misfire, but rather point out the remarkable back-story that makes this historically-based crime-caper stand out.

So back in 1970s, Princess Margaret, the current English monarch’s sister, had a raunchy affair in the Caribbean. Unfortunately, this was all caught on camera by Michael X, a drug-pushing pimp/zealot who claimed to be England’s version of Malcolm X.

X uses the photos to blackmail the British government, which wants to arrest him for his various indiscretions.

Now the government doesn’t want these photos to see the light of day (this was before royal English affairs became cool), so MI5 enlists (also via blackmail) the help of Martine Love (Saffron Burrows of Troy) to steal the photos from X’s safe deposit-box in a Baker Street bank.

Martine turns to ex-thief and struggling car dealer Terry Leather (Jason Statham) and his crew for the hit without telling them the real reason for the robbery.

The actual heist is only the beginning as the robbers soon find out that they are carrying hot secrets that some dangerous people don’t want getting out in the open (and we are not just talking about photos here).

Naturally they find themselves pursued by both the government and the gangsters who unfortunately want the same photos.

As caper-films go, The Bank Job is good, but nothing stellar.

Despite some being played by true veterans of English film and television (so veteran, you won’t know them), the characters are nothing more than watered-down versions of Guy Richie crooks without the comedic charm.

As usual, Statham reprises his role from Snatch, Crank and The Italian Job as a cynical, cockney-accented tough guy and while he never fails to deliver the thuggish charm, his performance is lost in a myriad sea of mediocrity. Even a sub-plot exploring the old romance between Terry and Martine is nothing more than a banal aside from the more important action. The bad guys, while rough, never quite achieve the level of idiosyncratic menace that would have made this film more distinguishable.

Of course the repressed characterizations could have been a directorial decision to respect the historicity of the film, but given its already unbelievable plot and the clear artistic license that was taken, making them more interesting couldn’t have hurt much.

Even the heist itself, while clever, still fails to achieve anything that hasn’t already been done before.

The film’s real value lies in its second half, where we get to see the consequences of the heist.

Each of the various factions in the film have there own sub-plot tied to the robbery, and seeing all of these threads come crashing together is the real root of the suspense. The film doesn’t hold back.

What was a simple caper-flick soon becomes a high-stakes suspenseful thriller where the only means to survival are the photos, which of course everyone needs.

It isn’t a very kid-friendly film either, with its own share of gruesome violence (there are some tough scenes) and ample nudity, adding a gritty realism to the whole thing.

What’s more astonishing is knowing that this is a (supposedly) true story, adding some authenticity to the madness and helping the audience to sympathize with the characters more (even if they are somewhat boring) because many of them probably existed.

Oh, and they threw John Lennon and Yo-Yo Ma cameos in there just for good measure.

Sure there are better caper-films, but The Bank Job is unique with its own share of inter-genre cinematics.

There is espionage, harsh violence, suspense and most importantly an element of truth in all of the madness.

It is truly a testament to how badly plans can go wrong, not just in film, but in the real world.