Rent The Spanish Prisoner (1997)

OK thriller; convoluted, good acting, great plot, bad direction. - The Spanish Prisoner review by tm

His failure to get you to suspend disbelief is unbelievable considering the excellent raw materiel.

when you look over Mamet's oeuvre, you realise his successes have always been when a real movie director has realised his writing.

this film has a great premise and an excellent plot. it should make an outstanding film in the right hands. unfortunately, Mamet who is a good play write cant direct. he takes some excellent actors and pretty well all the right ingredients for success and somehow contrives to waste them all on a tedious and implausible trudge through some lovely scenery without ever letting the viewer get out of the awareness of the fact that this is a film about a con trick of some sort.

finally when you see exactly what, you do get a sense of relief rather than a sense of excitement and revelation.

such a pity.

I hate remakes but this could do with one.