Okay, Mamet is a god and I'm not worthy to critique his work. But, that's the beauty of art. Everyone gets to offer their opinion.
If you like logical films with realistic dialogue, this film is not for you.
There are so many ridiculous set-ups in this film it was hard to watch through to the end. The dialogue was painful...truly painful. This coming from a man who wrote GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, one of the all-time best dialogue films ever created because the words came naturally, as though spoken by real people.
SPOILERS AHEAD...
In this film, we're meant to believe that the daughter of the President of the US (LAURA) is left to become a hooker because her daddy (the President) is too busy scoring whores on his own and his handlers wanted nothing more than to get rid of her (so he could win another term in the oval office). Just writing that gives me a headache, but I'll move on. Laura's mother (the First Lady) left her to be raised by a secret service agent. Why? We don't know. We just have to accept that this is realistic.
Val Kilmer plays a secret ops agent who apparently has credentials with the military and secret service alike. He's a walking god to anyone with a badge, but we don't know why. We just have to believe it. Val's performance is terrible, but I don't blame him. I blame the words on the page because they are simply awful.
Deux ex Machina is a term that describes when the gods influenced the outcome of a mythological story by simply using their powers to change the course of the events, without any rhyme or reason. It's a no-no when writing screenplays, and yet the god of screenwriters (David Mamet) uses them without hesitation and everyone turns a cheek and lets him get away with it. This is evidenced by the 7.2 rating this film currently has on IMDb, but I promise you this film is in the range of 2 or 3 out of 10. No more. The ridiculous premise, the unnatural dialogue and the deux ex machina in the very end with the Swedish film crew proves my point.
Save yourself the agony of watching this film and go watch CITY OF GOD or THE STATION AGENT. Two amazing films from the past year that deserve your time and energy, not this piece of crap.
Mr. Mamet, I admire you for the work you've done in the past. But for the love of god, step off of your high horse and ask someone with half a brain to read the script before you start your next film. If any writer trying desperately to crack into the business would submit something like SPARTAN, the story analyst wouldn't get past the first 5 pages. Your legend precedes you, but it's doing more harm than good.
ebhp
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