Based on an actual bank robbery that took place in Lon-don in 1971, but from which no money was ever recovered and for which no one was ever charged, The Bank Job focuses on Terry Leather(Jason Statham), a small time hood who now owns a failing car dealership and owes money to loansharks who intend to vent first on his property, then on him if he doesn't make good on payback. Terry is taken by surprise when an old flame, former model/actress Martine Love(Saffron Burrows) stops by and offers him the score of a lifetime: the opportunity to rob a closed bank over the week-end and make off with everything from a safety deposit box room. The getaway, Martine assures him, will be clean--since no one will want to report the items which are stored in the boxes, and therefore any investigations made by the police will be dead ends. Chatting the idea up with his likewise form-er hoodlum friends Kevin(Stephen Campbell Moore), Dave (Daniel Mays), Guy "the major" Singer(James Faulkner), Bambas(Alki David) and Eddie(Michael Jibson), the group decides to go for the score.

     What Terry doesn't know however, is that Martine has motives other than an illegal get-rich-quick scheme. In return for her friend Tim(Richard Lintern), a ladder climber at the British Secret Service MI5(Bond's MI6 was obviously busy with other stuff), getting her off on a drug charge, Martine has agreed to set up a bunch of "villains" to raid the deposit box room in hopes of getting her hands on certain incrimina-ting photos of a royal figure's bi-sexual threesome and returning them to Tim for prompt disposal. What Martine doesn't know is...

     Ah, but that would be giving it all away...and you know I'd never do that to you.

     The Bank Job is one classy film--in spite of its bloody roughness. The events behind this "based on a true story" take are highly speculative and obviously fictionalized to some degree, as the British government quickly slapped a

D-Notice gagging order(now called DA Notices) to prevent the truth from ever coming out. This is of minor consequence however, since the script by Dick Clement(Across the Universe, Flushed Away) and Ian La Frenais(Archangel, Goal!) is so tightly constructed that everything fits well within the realm of possibility. Director Roger Donaldson(Sleeping Dogs, Species) was also very wise to leave the events in the '70's, rather than updating the piece to modern times, as I'm certain most American studios would have done. Thank you, Lions Gate, for having some common sense!

     The atmosphere is completely evocative of the era in which it's shot, and likewise cinematographer Michael Coulter (Notting Hill, Love Actually) uses camera angles, close ups and framing indicative to that period of cinema, so that it feels to some degree as if you're watching an old '70's heist flick, though perhaps restored for the modern age.

     As with most British productions, from Cracker to Ultraviolet, the acting is solid on all quarters, and there's not a weak link in the chain. Surprisingly, the best performance might actually come from Jason Statham(the upcoming Transporter 3, Ghosts of Mars), who ably carries the film on his shoulders and holds the entire clique of crooks together. Perhaps it's being back on his home shore that's done it, or the fact that if you're working with the English on any type of dramatic presentation, you definitely need to bring your A game to the table--and without doubt, credit can also go to director Donaldson--but Statham has finally earned the right to be called a serious dramatic actor. As wily Terry, he's got the right amount of smarts, bravado and most importantly vulnerability--something rarely-to-never seen when appear-ing in such outright garbage as Uwe Boll's In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale or The One. After one of Terry's friends is murdered by a thug pornographer/gangster in collusion with crooked cops, Statham pulls out the anguish his character is in perfectly, as Terry starts to realize the real danger he's put not only his pals in, but his wife and two little girls as well. While one does expect to see him go all Trans-porter on the bad guys' asses, Statham manages to connect with the humanity of his character enough to make what few dustups he has believable, and shelve that lesser character to the back of the audiences' minds.

     Overall, The Bank Job is one of the most pleasant surpri-ses to visit our theaters in some time. It's engrossing, it has twists and turns one doesn't always see coming, the charac-ters are intelligent and the story never talks down to its audience...and most importantly, it's satisfying.

     Again, to our cousins across the pond, thanks. You can have Madonna and Guy Ritchie back now.