THE SPANISH PRISONER Now You See It...Now You Don't Review By Bruce Cantwell "I think you'll find that if what you've done for them is as valuable as they say it is, if they are indebted to you morally but not legally, my experience is that they will give you nothing and they will begin to act cruelly toward you," Jimmy (Steve Martin) tells Joe (Campbell Scott), chipping away at his confidence that his employer will reward him for developing "the process" that will make his company stinking rich. David Mamet combines themes from two previous works, the confidence game from HOUSE OF GAMES and the thwarted inventor from THE WATER ENGINE to create a delightful screenplay that has more twists and turns than the Arabic alphabet. Like his friend, magician Ricky Jay (who plays Joe's friend George), Mamet ever so carefully shuffles the deck and palms the trump cards from the beginning. Why is Joe's boss, Mr. Klein (Ben Gazzara) so reluctant to commit to Joe's bonus. Why is the new girl at the office, Susan (Rebecca Pidgeon) suddenly so smitten with him? Who is Jimmy Dell and why is he so eager to hook Joe up with his sister? The appeal of the mystery writer is much the same as that of the magician. We know that he's trying to distract us, so we heighten our defenses. The mystery writer's job is to distract us and to make all of the pieces fit in the end (sort of). Mamet does a pretty good job at this. THE SPANISH PRISONER is a brighter film than HOUSE OF GAMES because its protagonist isn't emotionally devastated by the con. He's a scientist who has been working so hard for so long, we suspect that he doesn't possess too many emotions. Though we identify with Joe because the story's told from his perspective, we don't feel personally wounded when Mamet rubs the salt in his wounds and ours by revealing at several key points just exactly how we've been fooled. Puzzle movies like this one don't come along that often. They're difficult to concoct and don't appeal to as wide an audience as a comedy or action picture. When one that works this well comes along, it is to be savored.	Warning: include() [function.include]: URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/spanish_prisoner.php3 on line 28 Warning: include(http://myenvoy.com/movies/side.php3) [function.include]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/spanish_prisoner.php3 on line 28 Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'http://myenvoy.com/movies/side.php3' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php') in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/spanish_prisoner.php3 on line 28
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