The Spanish Prisoner 1997

Janet Maslin, New York Times: It...has an appealing, ironically rarefied look that the filmmaker measures out carefully, in a story that begins with a seaplane and ends with a ferry. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Mamet brings more than a decade's worth of filmmaking experience to his latest project, and his skill as a director has improved considerably. Read more

Entertainment Weekly: Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: There's something fresh, even restorative, in watching an American studio movie that doesn't treat the movie-going audience like a bunch of gullible marks. Read more

David Denby, New York Magazine/Vulture: Mamet keeps the settings simple, breeding mistrust out of the flat walls and corporate colors. He concentrates on dialogue and character, and this movie is warmer, and much closer to psychological realism, than the weirdly schematic House of Games. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: The Spanish Prisoner shares with Glengarry Glen Ross a vision of life as a cosmic con game in which the victimizers feed the fantasies of the victims. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The Spanish Prisoner is for anyone who likes to think and feel along with the characters. Mamet offers us the same clues he gives to Joe; we can piece the truth together along with him. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It rolls its sleeves above its elbows to show it has no hidden cards, and then produces them out of thin air. Read more

Charles Taylor, Salon.com: The picture is moderately diverting. But it's never much fun. Read more

Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle: Mamet's dialogue is as deft as ever, and he draws a fine, complex performance from Scott, an actor whose talents are underused and underappreciated. Read more

Derek Adams, Time Out: David Mamet's most consistently enjoyable film to date is a cool, typically clever con-trick drama packed with deliciously inventive twists that get ever more convoluted and unnerving as the plot proceeds. Read more

Leonard Klady, Variety: David Mamet has a penchant for sleight-of-hand thrillers, and The Spanish Prisoner is his craftiest to date. Read more