Spartan
David Mamet is always at his best with his intricate fast-talking fast-moving thrillers. No one pulls off such sharp plot twists so often as he does so well in masterpieces like The Spanish Prisoner or House of Games. Sure, The Heist was a slightly convoluted missfire, but it was still a showcase of his inimitable style.
Spartan plays out a lot straighter than his usual thrillers. Straighter, and faster. After an opening scene establishing our characters in a training camp, it’s right into the case of a missing girl. This film doesn’t condescend, not for a second. At no point does a character stop and explain to another character (and thus the audience) what is going on. All we know, through Mamet’s marvellously stoic repetitive dialogue, is that a girl is missing, and it’s obviously someone important considering the amount of military intelligence involved.
To be honest, most of the time I didn’t know what the fuck was going on, but it still had me by the balls and on the edge of my seat. Every scene was played out with magnificent tension and suspense and often with some signature Mamet surprises - and the pieces of the puzzle fell superbly into place as the film rolled on.
A personal highlight was seeing the legendary Kick Gurry finally acting alongside Val Kilmer. I have been waiting for the rest of the world to realise the potential of our National Treasure, it’s just a pity he’s only in it for a minute before getting shot to death.
Oh, spoiler above.
Not Mamet’s best, but far from his worst (See Winslow Boy for that honour), Spartan is an engaging and smart conspiratorial thriller that will be best appreciated by fans of Mamet who are familiar with his rhythms and quirks. The only real let down was the ending. Right when the shit all goes down at an empty air hanger it is revealed the hanger is not so empty. There conveniently happens to be a Swedish news crew there who will no doubt make sure the conspiracy comes to light. I would have been happy with a more downer ending.
Oh – and if you get the DVD give Kilmer’s audio commentary a go. For a man who is supposedly an ultra-serious obnoxious dick, he can be pretty amusing at times.