The Negotiator (1998)
Director: F. Gary Gray Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, John Spencer, David Morse, Ron Rifkin, J.T. Walsh, Regina Taylor, Joey Perillo, Siobahn Fallon Screenplay: James DeMonaco, Kevin Fox Producers: Arnon Milchan, David Hoberman Runtime: 140 min. US Distribution: Warner Bros. Rated R: violence, profanity
By Nathaniel R. Atcheson (nate@pyramid.net)
I'm not sure of the Negotiator to which the title of this film refers: is it Danny Roman (Samuel L. Jackson), a Negotiator accused of taking hostages to prove his innocence, or is it Chris Sabian (Kevin Spacey), the Negotiator Roman wants called in to talk to him? Perhaps it's not important. What is important is that Roman has been accused of killing his partner, and now his friends and colleagues all believe he's is guilty. So, he heads up to the Internal Affairs office, where he suspects Inspector Niebaum (J.T. Walsh) is conspiring against him. And he takes everyone hostage.
The Negotiator is, unfortunately, a professional execution of a very mediocre script. I came close to recommending the film with more enthusiasm, but the problems in the story grew very tiresome by the last scene. Like so many thrillers, The Negotiator starts off with an interesting premise and concludes with sequences that make no sense. It should have been all psychological, featuring a showdown between two terrific actors (Jackson and Spacey). It has great scenes between the two, but there's too much contrived plot here to fully enjoy the chemistry. By the time the credits rolled, I wondered if I had seen a masked entry into the Fugitive series.
The film was directed by F. Gary Gray, and he is good at what he does. Just about every scene here -- even the ridiculous ones at the end -- are sharp and exciting. Consider, if you've seen the film, the scene in which men armed with machine guns go in to kill Roman, without Sabian's consent. Gray shoots this scene with skill, and it has the kind of claustrophobic feel that action scenes in small places need to be successful. The problem is that the scene is not necessary, nor is it realistic. The Negotiator's strongest points are in the electricity of the dialogue, and scenes like this break my concentration. Screenwriters should learn that, more often than not, words are more interesting than bullets.
But there is a lot to like about this film, particularly in the performances and Gray's observation of them. Spacey is a miracle of an actor, and I'm elated that he's not being typecast as a psycho. The first scene with him is terrific, showing him in a comical scene with his family (this scene is also nice because few thrillers even take the time to show us a little bit about the characters). Physically, Spacey is not an imposing man -- he's actually much shorter than most of the other actors in this film -- but he has a way of delivering dialogue that demands attention. He's a magnetic screen presence, and one of the few of these who can actually act.
Jackson is equally good, and plays the desperate man well. Jackson is one of the more versatile actors working today, proving in film after film that he's not bound by any limitations as a performer. He speaks his lines with conviction and ease, and never lets the audience slip out of the moment. The two actors are fascinating together, even when speaking through a telephone. One of the best scenes in the film is a moment in which the two stars and the director are working perfectly in sync -- just as Sabian arrives on the scene, and he's talking to Roman for the first time, the two men speak calmly as Sabian is preparing to negotiate with him. It's hard to explain the energy in this scene, but it's all visual, displaying the talent of the actors intertwined with Gray's swift style.
There are also some terrific supporting performances. Paul Giamatti, whom I will always remember as Howard Stern's nemesis, Pig Vomit, is in every movie this summer; here, he's hilarious as one of the hostages. David Morse continues with his string of roles that require him to play bad ass military guys (which he does well). The late J.T. Walsh is adequately dark as the mean Internal Affairs bad guy. And Regina Taylor gives a good performance as Roman's wife. None of the characterizations in this film are particularly strong, but it's one of the few pictures I've seen in which acting talent actually makes up for the lack of characters.
Reader, you can't understand how much I want to like this movie just a little bit more than I do. The acting is so good. The direction is so good. But the script is so silly, so profoundly dumb, and so shameless in its regression from interesting to absurd, that I just can't quite say that The Negotiator is a good film and live on with my clear conscience. Why did we have to have another story about a man clearing his innocence? Why did I need to see more silly scenes in which people hack into computers to find out hidden information (the computer is the *worst* place to keep incriminating information)? Why did there have to be silly shootouts, and machinegun battles in close quarters? Actors this talented don't need all this plot -- just contrive a crisis, put them in a room, and let them do the rest.
**1/2 out of **** (6/10, C+)
Visit FILM PSYCHOSIS at http://www.pyramid.net/natesmovies
Nathaniel R. Atcheson
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews