PULP NON-FICTION
“THE BANK JOB”
Directed by Roger Donaldson, Written by Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais
Stars: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Richard Lintern, and David Suchet
Rated R for Language, Nudity and Violence, 110 minutes.

The Bank Job is the polar opposite of the Ocean’s 11, 12 and 13 series. It lacks big stars, a flashy style, and a smug attitude, all very good attributes if you ask me.  Fact is, I much prefer my heist films like this one: fast, gritty, realistic, and smart. 

I left out another big plus: It’s British. For the last 10 years, our friends across the pond have been making better gangster films than we have. Consider Croupier, Face, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, (where Bank Job star Jason Statham got his start), Snatch, Gangster No. 1, Sexy Beast, Dead Man’s Shoes and Layer Cake. All of these films have taken their stories that are usually rooted in a uniquely American genre and, in their own individual way, given it a refreshing makeover.  New accents, new slang, new styles, and new talent, but all serving up throwback storylines that somehow never seem outdated.  The Bank Job deserves mention on that short list, too.  Like those other films, everything old is new wave again.

Based on a story so outrageous it could only be true, The Bank Job is set in 1970s London. T-Rex is on the radio and a black revolutionary militant, Michael X (Peter de Jersey) is running amuck and afoul of the law; he’s a dread-locked Droog who seems to do as he pleases with no regard for the law and its consequences. Arrested for assault, he smirks at the Judge and Prosecutors working against him since he has the ultimate Get Out of Jail Free Card in the form of secretly taken photographs of a certain person of Royal lineage in several rather compromising positions. 

These photos are locked away in a safe deposit box at a Lloyds Bank on Baker Street in London.  All that’s needed is for the government to arrange for Michael X’s exit out of the country and then find a way to steal the photos from the bank.  They recruit Martine Love (Saffron Burrows), an ex-model who’s facing a drug charge, to find a local gang to carry out the robbery. Martine, in turn, recruits her old friend Terry Leather (Jason Statham), an owner of an exotic auto body shop who’s in hock to local gangsters and could use the money from the robbery to settle his debts and provide a better life for his wife and daughters.

Terry assembles his crew which includes his old neighborhood friends Dave (Daniel Mays), a second-rate porn star, Eddie (Michael Jibson), the somewhat doltish mechanic who works with him at the body shop, and Kevin (Steven Campbell Moore), who once had a thing for Martine.  Added to the mix are two wily veterans, one a con artist named Guy Singer (James Faulkner) and an experienced tunnel man, Bambas (Alki David).  Together, the gang pulls off the seemingly perfect crime, but the aftermath not only turns disastrous, but deadly as well. 

Along with the offending Royal photos (not to mention cash and jewels), Terry’s crew also steal several salacious photos of Britain’s politicians visiting a local madam’s brothel (echoes of David Vitter here), and a local porn lord’s ledger that contains payoffs to crooked policemen.  Before Terry and his friends have a chance to celebrate their literal good fortune, they realize they have been targeted by powerful forces who even manage to put a lid on the local press (In England, this is referred to as a “D-Notice”).  Terry has to piece together not just who is chasing him but why and figure a way out of this quagmire of police, political, and Royal corruption. 

Although the plot of The Bank Job is complex, it is never complicated or confusing. Credit writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (Across the Universe) and director Roger Donaldson (No Way Out, The World’s Fastest Indian) for keeping things moving at a fast clip, breathlessly segueing from one plot twist to the next.  Also credit is due the fine cast, many of whom are unfamiliar to these shores but who manage to evoke their characters’ motivations in subtle ways.  Burrows, Lintern (as her MI-5 contact), Mays, and Suchet all make memorable impressions.

As for Jason Statham, he is finally given a chance to act and he does so without the usual bag of Actor’s tricks or scenery-chewing histrionics.  I haven’t seen many of Statham’s action films, but he does seem to have a natural way of capturing the camera. Comparisons to Steve McQueen have been made and though the jury’s still out on that one, I will say that Statham shares McQueen’s no-nonsense style and down-to-earth, regular guy likability. 

The Bank Job isn’t great art, but it’s really good for what it is, and in this barren period of quality at the movies, it’s more than enough.  Sometimes, films and filmmakers strain too hard to stay ahead of the curve only to end up losing their way in an excess of style, gore, and self-conscious dialogue.  Thankfully, The Bank Job isn’t ahead of the curve; in fact, it’s so straightforward there’s no curve to speak of, and I mean that as the highest form of flattery.  This is one ‘Job’ that’s very well done, indeed.