Spartan (2004)

SPARTAN
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2004 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****):  *** 1/2

SPARTAN is a thinking man's thriller by writer and director David Mamet, who has an impressive body of work from his brilliant first films, HOUSE OF GAMES and THINGS CHANGE, to his equally satisfying more recent movies, THE SPANISH PRISONER, THE WINSLOW BOY and STATE AND MAIN. His latest, SPARTAN, is an edge-of-your-seat mystery about the kidnapping of a college student, Laura Newton (Kristen Bell), who happens to be the daughter of a president who can't keep his pants on. Her abductors, however, don't realize whom they've got. They think she is just another pretty, petite blonde, who is just the type they need for their foreign prostitution ring.

The script is heavy on the plotting and scheming, but there's plenty of action too. The story is one in which little is what it seems and in which no one is ever safe. In less capable hands than Mamet's, suspending disbelief could have been hard at times, but, with him in charge, it's easy to go with the flow and buy the story lock, stock and barrel.

Val Kilmer, the star of SPARTAN, seems to be making a sea change in his career. After years of blowing his talent in needless overacting in such dogs as THE SAINT and THE SALTON SEA, Kilmer delivered a great performance last year in WONDERLAND and does so again in SPARTAN. As Robert Scott, a special ops trainer and expert, Kilmer delivers a remarkably restrained performance that perfectly captures a man on a mission who is willing to "go off the meter" to bring back the girl.

The Secret Service and their fellow agencies have got just two days before Laura is supposed to go to her Monday classes and hence only two "before the press wakes up" and starts a "feeding frenzy." Since a professor might somehow be involved, an order is given to, "Wake him up! Shake him up!"

The punchy dialog alone -- "You want to gossip, or do you want to shoot someone?" -- is worth the price of admission. One of the best of the many tart exchanges occurs between Robert and Curtis (Derek Luke), one of the Rangers whom Robert has been training. You'll remember Luke from his blazing first performance in the title role of Denzel Washington's ANTWONE FISHER. Showing Curtis how to search his surroundings for clues, Robert tells him, "In a city, always reflection. In the woods, sound." "What about the desert?" his pupil asks. "You don't want to go to the desert," Robert replies. Hmm, I wonder where this white slavery ring might operate.

As Mamet peels away more and more of his onion of a plot, you may be looking at your watch, but not for the reason that usually causes you to get acquainted with your timepiece in the dark of a theater. You may be thinking, as I did, that you don't want this to end. If Mamet ever wants to turn SPARTAN into a miniseries, I'm there. And, if the average screenwriter had just one tenth of Mamet's talent, movies would be a whole lot more fun.

SPARTAN runs 1:46. It is rated R for "violence and language" and would be acceptable for teenagers.

The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, March 12, 2004. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.

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