The Bank Job: Based on a True Story

Directed by Roger Donaldson, The Bank Job: Based on a True Story follows a crew of robbers, led by Jason Statham’s Terry Leather, as they agree to break into a bank to recover sensitive (and extremely valuable) pictures of a prominent public figure. Filmmaker Donaldson, working from Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais’ screenplay, delivers a familiar yet mostly engaging drama that benefits from efforts of its eclectic roster of performers, with Statham’s typically commanding turn as the unflappable central character matched by a supporting cast that includes, among others, Saffron Burrows, David Suchet, and Daniel Mays. (The latter is especially agreeable as the crew’s comic relief.) And although Donaldson has packed the movie with tense, exciting sequences, with the heist itself as engaging and entertaining as one might’ve hoped, The Bank Job: Based on a True Story‘s 111 minute running time is ultimately longer than the somewhat straight-forward narrative can comfortably bear – which does result, particularly in the comparatively padded-out second half, in a series of palpable lags that adversely affect the picture’s overall impact. The end result is a decent heist film that generally feels like it could and should be so much better, and yet it’s difficult, for the most part, not to get drawn into the progressively over-the-top twists and turns contained within.

*** out of ****