The Bank Job
The Bank Job
The Bank Job
Directed by Roger Donaldson (R)
A bank heist is shrouded in royal scandal and mystery.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
***
The Bank Job “is no better than its generic title,” said Jim Emerson in the Chicago Sun-Times. Loosely based on London’s infamous “walkie-talkie” bank robbery, this movie theorizes what actually happened on that day in 1971—when the heist became a big story only to mysteriously disappear from the headlines days later. Given the intriguing premise, director Roger Donaldson carried out a “pretty routine job.” Writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais resort to incorporating every scandalous twist they can think of—spies, prostitutes, payoffs, murder, blackmail, and the like—to stir up the plot. Actually it’s an “almost ridiculous series of fortuitous mishaps” that gives the film its distinctiveness, said Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times. Donaldson constructs a complex narrative that keeps the tension building and the fun coming as “nearly every genre convention unravels in one clever way or another.” At its heart, though, The Bank Job is an old-fashioned, “tight-knit crime thriller,” said David Denby in The New Yorker. Instead of depending on violence and technical high jinks, Donaldson keeps us happily perplexed with a “terrifically complicated” story line.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The teenage 'maths prodigy' who turned out to be a cheat
Under The Radar Jiang Ping defied expectations in a global competition but something wasn't right
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Puppet shows, pagodas and pho: a guide to Hanoi
The Week Recommends Vietnam's capital city blends the ancient with the new
By Catherine Garcia, The Week US Published
-
'There are benefits, but not acknowledging them would tell only half of the story'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published