Review #7 – The Spanish Prisoner

I love the cheap-bin at our local video store; while there is plenty of crap, the opportunity to find a gem or six makes the bin worth looking through. I particularly like it when it is obvious that the store has pulled all the poor-renting film; regardless of virtue they will be dumped if enough folks don't rent them. My tastes are, by most people's standards, eclectic; therefore, I stand a pretty good chance of finding good stuff, even in a fairly picked-over bin.

On a recent foray, I grabbed The Spanish Prisoner, David Mamet's acclaimed 1997 production. I must express a prejudice: I love David Mamet's work, especially the writing... he's penned such diverse works as The Verdict, Wag the Dog, The Untouchables, Ronin, Hoffa, Glengarry Glen Ross, State and Main, and House of Games...

As with other Mamet works, the strength of The Spanish Prisoner is the dialogue. Mamet spends about as much time thinking about realism as Alfred Hitchcock ever did; that is to say, not much... this type of cinematic formalism is an acquired taste, I suppose, but I like a filmmaker who give me credit for knowing that I am watching a film and that someone is leading me along... if reality is a virtue, I'll go outside and take a look...

Mamet's craft best expresses itself in what his characters say: one interchange, for example... Joe Ross: "Funny old world." Susan Ricci: "Funny old world? Dog my cats!" Joe Ross: "Dog my cats indeed." What does this mean? I don't know, but it's fun. He has other characters spout such worthies as "Worry is like interest paid in advance on a debt that never comes due" [George Lang]; "We must never forget that we are human, and as humans we dream, and when we dream we dream of money" [Lang, again]; "Beware of all enterprises which require new clothes" [and again]; "Always do business as if the person you're doing business with is trying to screw you, because he probably is. And if he's not, you can be pleasantly surprised" [Jimmy Dell].

The title of this piece comes from a long-con... "oldest con in the world", as one of the detectives says... I doubt this; I am sure there are cons pre-dating the existence of Spain, but I quibble needlessly. [If you don't know what is meant by con, click the link] I am sure of pre-existing cons because they seems elemental to human nature; we recognize that Joe, the nice-guy central character played by Cambell Scott, is in a heap-o-trouble right from the outset, precisely because he IS a nice-guy. Joe has developed a mysteriously labelled "Process" that will allow the company he works for to "control the world market". We are pretty sure that things aren't what they seem, but in what way? Can Joe trust anyone? Probably not... but he does.

The movie opens on a junket to a mysterious Carribean location; Joe is with his boss, Mr. Klein, his friend, George, and his secretary, Susan, none of whom seem completely trustworthy. While on the island, he meets Jimmy, who definitely is not what he seems. There are mysterious packages, mysterious relatives, mysterious other guests, mysterious passers-by... after a while, everyone seems worthy of our suspicions. Poor Joe... it takes quite a bit to shake him; in fact, viewers might want to give him a shake, because he's so significantly naive. Scott plays his convincingly, though, as a man so lost in his formulae and figures that the reality of his existence escapes him... it isn't until actual menace slaps him in the face that he reacts, and, once awakened, he uses his analytic ability to work out the problem.

Without giving away too much of the plot I will say that the story resolves itself, somewhat, but one can't help hearing a faint chuckle from the filmmaker, especially when there appear to be significant holes in the ending; perhaps he's laughing at our need for any sort of resolution. And any discussion of story-arc conventions will just ruin the joy of this film, which is just watching and hearing smart words coming from characters we want to hear from... how refreshing. This film's relatively obvious low budget is part of the charm; one gets the impression that these talented people made this movie because they wanted to, and their dedication comes through.