I am resubmitting this review, which I originally submitted last month.
HOUSE OF GAMES by Kristian Lin
David Mamet's THE SPANISH PRISONER is yet another story where an innocent man is beset by demons but defended by angels and ministers of grace. Movies like this usually depend on a passive central character and are thus emotionally uninvolving no matter how intellectually engaging they may be. This one's no different, although it's told reasonably well.
Joe Ross (Campbell Scott) works for a company and has discovered a process. Mamet intentionally leaves the nature of the business and Joe's discovery vague; what's important is that the new invention will make them lots of money. He's sent to a Caribbean island where he meets Julian "Jimmy" Dell (Steve Martin), a wealthy playboy with a propensity for eccentric gestures like setting Joe up with a Swiss bank account - it only has 15 francs in it, but the Swiss will keep the balance a secret, and Joe can impress people with his account. But there's a point to Jimmy's apparent whims, and Joe soon finds himself bilked out of his discovery, with the police thinking that he has stolen it from the company. The only person he can trust is his secretary, Susan Ricci (Rebecca Pidgeon), who believes he's innocent.
It's a nice little shell game that Mamet puts us through, though there are a few holes. When Joe discovers a friend murdered, he flees the scene rather than face the cops who are hot on his heels. By doing so, he seems to play right into the hands of both the bad guys and the good guys. But why would they count on him running, especially when everyone keeps testifying to what a straight arrow he is? Why don't they figure on him leading the cops to the dead body? Such questions make Joe a cipher, and Campbell Scott, accomplished actor that he is, can't get to the bottom of the character.
There are other problems, too. Mamet has been directing movies for 11 years, and he still hasn't even reached adequacy. The overall pacing is fine, but the movie looks drab, and he blows the big climactic moment by drawing it out in slow-motion. Mamet's dialogue, his great strength as a writer, is off as well. OLEANNA had too many broken sentences and dramatic pauses in inappropriate places. THE SPANISH PRISONER has too many pronouncements on matters philosophical - Joe's friend George (Ricky Jay) says, "Worry is like interest paid in advance on a debt that never comes due." When Susan responds to the simple query of "How are you?" with, "The wolves are howling at my troika," you just wince at the artifice.
And then there's Rebecca Pidgeon, who is Mrs. Mamet in real life. She's been a constant in his stage plays, but (besides a small part in HOMICIDE) Mamet has had the decency to keep her out of his movies until now. She's a flat, irritatingly fraudulent presence whose jocular good cheer is transparently phony. The rest of the cast, though, ranges from good enough to excellent - worth singling out are Felicity Huffman as an FBI agent and Ed O'Neill as her cool, brisk supervisor. Best of all is Steve Martin, who slips into Mamet's world with frightening ease, as he keeps finding layers to this man with ulterior motives. With much less fanfare than Robin Williams or Tom Hanks or (most recently) Jim Carrey, Steve Martin has made himself into a dramatic actor of considerable weight. Actually, he had that kind of heft before any of them - check out his performance in the great PENNIES FROM HEAVEN (1981). He has devoted more and more time to writing essays and plays and become very good at them, but let's hope he gives us a few more performances like this.
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