Jodie Foster?

I thought she did the uber-cool powerbroker role well. Something about Foster is very credible in a role where she plays someone attractive but whose authority doesn't derive from her looks.

Her character was necessary to bridge the gap between Denzel, Owen and Plummer as well as allow for expository information about Plummer's character. If anything, you could argue she's *too* necessary and causes Owen's "bank robbery" motive to be not a bank robbery too early. It might have been better to have more of Plummer trying to pull off some of Foster's influence peddling. We already know he's hinky, but we don't know why until Owen explains it to Foster in the bank.

They could have had Plummer playing most of her role -- leaning on the mayor, trying to use his own likely considerable financial influence to get the cops to protect his safety deposit box. I'm not sure how we'd know Plummer's Nazi past, but maybe it would be something revealed in the car as Owen drives away with his crew after leaving the bank. Denzel would still find out about the Nazi connection the way he did in the film, and the scene in the restaurant would just play out with Plummer and the Mayor.

But it's probably a little less awkward with Foster, and with Spike Lee directing I'm sure it wasn't hard to get Foster to take a small supporting role as a power broker, and it probably makes the film more intelligible.