The Spanish Prisoner - 1997 - 4 Stars

Actors:  Campbell Scott, Ricky Jay
Director:  David Mamet

Why is there not a statue of David Mamet somewhere?  No one writes dialogue like Mamet and no one writes plots like Mamet.  Yet he's become a ghost of the cinema in the 2000s, hardly writing or directing anything for the screen.  We must demand that he return, because there won't be another David Mamet or anything like him again.

Indeed, no one writes like Mamet, but a lot of people direct like him - he's not a particularly interesting director.  Everything's very matter-of-fact.  He doesn't get great performances out of people - it seems like at times he doesn't want them.  Even so, The Spanish Prisoner is the closest thing we get in these diluted times to the wonder of Alfred Hitchcock.