"Always do business as if the person you were doing business with were screwing you, because they probably are." And if they're not, you can be pleasantly surprised,'' Jimmy Dell (wonderfully creepy Steve Martin) tells "salaried employee" Joe Ross (Scott).
Ross has just invented the "process" for his company (it's so valuable that when he writes the figure on a blackboard, we don't even see it, only the shining eyes of executives looking at it and their proclamation in unison, like a Greek chorus, of, "What do we own?"), but he quickly fears they will rob him blind. For good reason.
Supposed jet setter Mr Dell leads to more doubts in Joe's mind, and offers to lend his assistance in Joe's battle for monetary "consideration". Complicating matters is Susan (Rebecca Pidgeon, Mamet's wife), a distinctly odd, but strangely fascinating woman who is either Ross' only advocate or a crucial figure in the plot against him. Pidgeon plays infatuation like a Dalek - "Don't get morose, get even" she advises robotically.
Mamet claims that this familiar exploration of financial deceit and con artists is lighter than his previous work. It looks just as dark, claustrophobic, dangerous and vaguely dank to me. Although, admittedly, the "Hitchcockian" feel and the dearth of statutory Mamet expletives probably lends itself to a more widespread audience.
As in House of Games (1987), Mamet's first film as a director, The Spanish Prisoner takes a reasonably intelligent, self-possessed character and proceeds to shatter his expectations and sense of equilibrium (similar to Martin Scorcese's 80s masterpiece After Hours). Trust proves his undoing, faith in the human race his tragic flaw - "Can't go around mistrusting everybody," he maintains.
Eventually, painfully, hopelessly Joe figures out that he has to second-guess the sharks. However, even then he continues to take people at their word. They flatter him and play him on his vanity and greed. Steve Martin, in his best role since Parenthood, is unrelentingly insincere (he would sell his grandma's teeth for a wine gum), he keeps saying, "extraordinary gesture" and Joe falls for it. Dell flatters in order to deceive and Joe becomes a Kafka/Alfred Hitchcock-type pawn.
Predictably, The Spanish Prisoner, features some marvelous Mamet's truncated monosyllabic dialogue such as: "I put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains," "People aren't that complicated Jo," and "Work for a living that explains your good manners." Plus, Mamet's distinctive feel for the conventions of heterosexual male intimacy as its mediated by business and pleasure is indeed a pleasure to behold. The Spanish Prisoner is definitely worth a visit.
Ross has just invented the "process" for his company (it's so valuable that when he writes the figure on a blackboard, we don't even see it, only the shining eyes of executives looking at it and their proclamation in unison, like a Greek chorus, of, "What do we own?"), but he quickly fears they will rob him blind. For good reason.
Supposed jet setter Mr Dell leads to more doubts in Joe's mind, and offers to lend his assistance in Joe's battle for monetary "consideration". Complicating matters is Susan (Rebecca Pidgeon, Mamet's wife), a distinctly odd, but strangely fascinating woman who is either Ross' only advocate or a crucial figure in the plot against him. Pidgeon plays infatuation like a Dalek - "Don't get morose, get even" she advises robotically.
Mamet claims that this familiar exploration of financial deceit and con artists is lighter than his previous work. It looks just as dark, claustrophobic, dangerous and vaguely dank to me. Although, admittedly, the "Hitchcockian" feel and the dearth of statutory Mamet expletives probably lends itself to a more widespread audience.
As in House of Games (1987), Mamet's first film as a director, The Spanish Prisoner takes a reasonably intelligent, self-possessed character and proceeds to shatter his expectations and sense of equilibrium (similar to Martin Scorcese's 80s masterpiece After Hours). Trust proves his undoing, faith in the human race his tragic flaw - "Can't go around mistrusting everybody," he maintains.
Eventually, painfully, hopelessly Joe figures out that he has to second-guess the sharks. However, even then he continues to take people at their word. They flatter him and play him on his vanity and greed. Steve Martin, in his best role since Parenthood, is unrelentingly insincere (he would sell his grandma's teeth for a wine gum), he keeps saying, "extraordinary gesture" and Joe falls for it. Dell flatters in order to deceive and Joe becomes a Kafka/Alfred Hitchcock-type pawn.
Predictably, The Spanish Prisoner, features some marvelous Mamet's truncated monosyllabic dialogue such as: "I put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains," "People aren't that complicated Jo," and "Work for a living that explains your good manners." Plus, Mamet's distinctive feel for the conventions of heterosexual male intimacy as its mediated by business and pleasure is indeed a pleasure to behold. The Spanish Prisoner is definitely worth a visit.