The Bank Job

Director Roger Donaldson's The Bank Job is one of the best caper films to come along in a long time. A cunning woman recruits a group of two-bit hustlers to tunnel into a London bank vault, where they hope to score big by emptying the safe deposit boxes.

It seems a simple set-up, but The Bank Job is a complex story with a twisting, interconnected plot in which numerous dirty little secrets are tucked away in this same vault and suddenly the robbers have not only the police after them, but the government suits, white collar officials, a crafty madame, crooked cops, a Malcolm X wanna-be and a seedy crime boss.

As the plot weaves itself into a tight, well-plotted mesh, the audience finds itself pulling for the bank robbers all the way. Even more astonishing is that the film is based on an actual caper, the details of which were sealed by the British government because of the officials involved with the vaults numerous dirty little secrets.

***1/2 out of 5.