Con games come in many variations, shapes and sizes, but usually involve an unknowing victim who falls prey to a carefully constructed, but often quickly executed plan of deception. Usually played to bilk someone out of a small amount of cash or property -- therefore less likely to draw much heat from the police -- such cons are often comparable to pickpockets and come off as nothing much more than annoying. The awkwardly titled "The Spanish Prisoner" -- named after an older and more elaborate con -- takes that criminal deception to a higher level and, in doing so, creates an ever growing maze of conspiracy that would make even Oliver Stone proud.
Written and directed by David Mamet -- one of America's foremost playwrights who's now building his cinematic resume with this, the fifth film he's written and directed, "The Spanish Prisoner" starts out a little slow, but then begins to deal out layer upon layer of complications. Much like the traditional "Hitchcockian" theme where an ordinary man gets caught up in extraordinary circumstances -- the film should please moviegoers who like plots where the protagonist gets deeper into trouble and learns he can trust no one.
What might annoy audiences, though, is the obvious theatrically based dialogue, especially as delivered by Rebecca Pidgeon who plays the main characters' new assistant. Often repeating carefully constructed lines, her character sounds interesting, but certainly not human. Now, don't get me wrong -- Mamet definitely has a gift for writing the spoken word and his intense dialogue is often fun just to sit back and absorb. Yet where that works, and truly is needed, is on the stage where the often limited resources, stage space or lack of scenic elements put a high emphasis on what's spoken and how it's delivered.
On film, however, it just doesn't work. In real life nobody speaks that way either, and it only serves to distract the audience from the rest of the film. Things move along fine until certain characters open their mouths and the audience's attention immediately shifts to the artificial sounding dialogue.
The performances, however, are good and make up for those "problems." Campbell Scott ("Dying Young," "Singles") -- with his handsome, "everyday" looks -- does a decent job playing the average "Joe" (no pun intended) who finds himself the victim in an elaborately staged conspiracy. Rebecca Pidgeon (a Broadway actress and Mamet's spouse), as stated earlier, is the unfortunate performer saddled with the abstract dialogue, but she still manages to pull off a decent, albeit odd character.
The real standout, however, is Steve Martin ("Leap of Faith," the "Father Of The Bride" movies), who appears to be slowly distancing himself from his early glory days of the "wild and crazy guy" character that introduced him to worldwide audiences several decades ago. Many comedians often have darker sides underlying their "surface" humor, and Martin expertly puts that developed characteristic to use in his shady character.
Mamet's script delivers the requisite twists and turns and they neatly and precisely unfold as the story progresses. While a few of them are telegraphed -- and thus aren't that surprising -- for the most part they are quite effective. At times, however, the revealing of information is too obviously shoved down our throats. When a mother repeatedly tells her child two bits of superfluous info -- that have no bearing beyond the moment for her -- Scott's character should pick it up right away. It's so obvious that we do after just her first utterance, but he doesn't, so she's forced by Mamet to say it several times until he finally understands the "clue."
Likewise, many of the characters repeatedly make observational comments about people in general to Joe. Susan spouts awkward lines about people never being what they seem, and considering the way things turn out, one would think she should keep her mouth shut, lest she give away ulterior motives. Conversely, Steve Martin's character mentions that people are generally what they look like -- perhaps a counterpoint to Susan's near spilling of the beans as they are -- but none of it ever comes across as natural feeling dialogue.
Even so, it does give the film something of an abstract, and perhaps even nightmarish quality considering what eventually unfolds. The whole film is something akin to a dream. We never know what Joe really does, or what the "product" he's devised really entails. Likewise, with other nebulous characters, odd dialogue and the progression of events that remind one a little of "North By Northwest" or other similar stories where the protagonist finds themselves in an out of control world, the film is certainly never boring to watch. Except for the often incongruous dialogue, this is a decent, intelligently constructed thriller that will keep you unsure of the resolution right up until the very end. We give "The Spanish Prisoner" a 7 out of 10.