newjerseynewsroom.com

BY JOE TYRRELL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

MOVIE REVIEW

Right down to incorporating a major holiday event and two car chases into the action, "Tower Heist" is a professional job.

This tale of little guys and gals fighting The Man aims squarely for downtrodden average Americans. Not so much to inspire them, but to distract them as their jobs go elsewhere and their savings, plus their tax dollars, stick to the fingers of their presumed betters.

That is what has happened at a certain gaudy residential building on Central Park West, where Wall Street billionaire Arthur Shaw makes his penthouse nest. Played by Alan Alda with a smooth man-of-the-people veneer, Shaw realizes his nobility obligates him to offer his financial acumen to serfs like cheerful doorman Lester (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and especially building manager Josh Kovacs.

After all, besides being his designated chess opponent, Josh gets Mr. Shaw his special cheese and makes last-minute arrangements for his parties. Earnestly played by Ben Stiller, Josh went to the very same Astoria public school as his most prominent resident, although the only time he reaches the same heights is when he rides the elevator to take Mr. Shaw's breakfast order.

Within this building, Josh has everything under control, the likes, dislikes, special needs and even the otherwise unacknowledged indiscretions of his clientele. The same can't be said for his concierge and brother-in-law, Charlie (Casey Affleck), who grandly offers red roses and best wishes for the Chinese New Year in Mandarin to a Korean resident.

But Charlie is distracted, his wife is expecting. Jamaican maid Odessa, brightly played by Gabourey Sidibe, needs to find a husband before her work visa expires. As a breezy go-getter named Dev'Reaux, the charming Michael Peña believes he is "stepping up to the big time" as the new elevator operator. And Lester confides that he will soon be retiring to San Diego with his nest egg.

There are other ripples from the wider world. A bank is trying to foreclose on the condo owned by unemployed stock broker Mr. Fitzhugh, and now furnished solely with tents, sleeping bags and his children's drawings. Puffy and downcast, Matthew Broderick makes Fitzhugh a barely standing stand-in for the housing bubble, foreclosure fraud and the rest of our self-inflicted troubles.

With almost all the pieces on the board, "Tower Heist" needs something to jolt the cast into action.

To Josh's surprise, that starkly dressed, gun-wielding team approaching the building is comprised not of robbers or kidnappers, but FBI agents come to arrest Mr. Shaw, charging his investments were a Ponzi scheme. Among the vanished millions, Special Agent Claire Denham explains briskly, the savings and pensions of Lester, Josh and the other Tower employees are small potatoes. If anything is recovered, it will go to the banks, she says.

But this movie's real spark comes from the return of Eddie Murphy. Return? He's been around forever, working steadily, raking in the dough. Aside from lending his voice to the "Shrek" films, though, Murphy might as well be Arthur Shaw. It's been years since he been's up to any good.

That ends here. As Josh's neighbor Slide, Murphy provides enough sly electricity to carry "Tower Heist" through a middle section of dubious plotting and curious editing. It doesn't come easy, as his character is forced to fight the power: yet another black guy recruited by whites to teach them about, you know, crime. If there's one thing 400 years of American history have taught everyone but Hollywood, it's that white people usually don't need to consult anyone before doing bad things.