THE NEGOTIATOR **** (out of five stars) A review by Jamey Hughton
Starring-Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, John Spencer, David Morse, J.T. Walsh and Ron Rifkin Director-F. Gary Gray Rated 14A Released July 1998 Warner Bros. Reviewed 1999
MOVIE VIEWS by Jamey Hughton http://Welcome.to/MovieViews
While it has the workings of a standard hostage film, The Negotiator is something more than that. The reason? The two lead performances spark so much interest and tension that the material is lifted above the regular ante. As they face off against each other in a battle of wits and intelligence, Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey stretch a limited subject into a filling two-hour, twenty minute time slot.
Renowned police negotiator Danny Roman (Jackson) is in quite the pickle: he's been framed for his partner's murder and accused of stealing money from the police pension fund. While Roman stresses that he is innocent, there is so much evidence against him that even his colleagues and friends are pondering his guilt. And it's quite possible that someone in his precinct is involved - he just has to find out who.
And so Roman does something crazy. At least it would seem crazy at first glance; he walks into Internal Affairs and dukes it out with Inspector Niebaum (J.T. Walsh) as he searches for the truth. Things get out of hand, and Roman ends up taking hostages on the 20th floor. They include Niebaum, his prickly secretary (Siobahn Fallon), and a computer fraud specialist (Paul Giamatti) who was in a meeting at the time. The incident is turned into a full-blown media event, which is exactly what Roman had planned. He wants to intimidate Niebaum until he divulges the identity of the killer, and this tight situation is the perfect way to make him sweat it out.
Roman requests fellow negotiator Chris Sabian (Kevin Spacey), refusing to listen to anyone else. The connection between the two is a simple one: Sabian is a stranger, and right now Roman is having difficulty trusting any friends. When Spacey enters the picture, The Negotiator gets very interesting. Both are in the same profession, and each is aware of the rules of the game. Roman can predict each move that Sabian is planning next, and this is a marvelous tension builder. It becomes clear that this is going to a long, hard-fought battle between two determined men who are trying desperately to outsmart each other. It's a treat, to say the least, while watching these verbal showdowns.
The Negotiator is still aware of it's basic hostage/takeover premise, and it relies on this more toward the end. Roman ends up searching Niebaum's files on his office computer, until some mysterious phone taps come up. If there's one disappointing aspect of the film, it's the obvious route for the resolution. For a movie so exciting and original to turn into something conventional in the end is rather a disappointment. But even when The Negotiator experiences an occasional lapse in development, director F. Gary Gray is right there to set it back on course once again.
As for the question of `whodunit?', it's one of the little worries. We're so caught up in the fiery foreplay of the two stars that we nearly forget about the initial plot. At some point, though, you begin to make assumptions of the real killer's identity. It's a tough decision, because everyone is a possible suspect. The arrogant team-player Beck (David Morse) could be involved, or the chief (John Spencer) perhaps... But take my advice: don't suspect anyone of the crime just because of their relationship to Roman, because in the end it has little bearing on the outcome.
Everything in The Negotiator would have been fairly routine if it weren't for the quality of acting. Jackson and Spacey are both excellent, commanding, and appropriately cast. Without their intense confrontations, this film would collapse helplessly. But because of the amount of excellence applied, this is one of the smarter action films to come along in a while. And it's the best star vehicle that either actor may get in many years to come.
(C) 1999, Jamey Hughton
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