Spartan
(2004)
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 Hour and 46 Minutes
Reviewer: Dale
Grade: A+“Spartan” is easily the most riveting, most tightly wound and more refreshing thriller I’ve seen since at least 2002’s “Insomnia”, and it’s probably even better than that. In fact, it’s one of the best thrillers I’ve seen in my entire life, and I have sat through a great many films.
The plot is pretty simple, at first glance. A young woman has been kidnapped. A group of government agents are assigned to restore her. But there are some strange things about this kidnapping. First of all, no ransom note has been left. Second of all, no one saw or heard anything about the kidnapping. Third, the woman in question is the daughter of the president.
If this all sounds like your average suspense film, the sort that gets shat out on a weekly basis, usually with Ashley Judd involved somewhere, then you are in for a rare treat. While the plot may sound like old hat, the film is anything but. This is one of those all-too-rare movies that actually respect the intelligence of the viewer. There is not an instant of this film where you can take it easy. You can’t turn your back on this movie for one minute, or you’ll be doomed. I didn’t understand exactly what was happening at certain moments along the way, but the film usually paid me off a few moments later. If you pay attention, the film actually makes you feel smart for your attentiveness. It rewards your attentiveness, relishes it, and appreciates it. It’s rare that a movie displays those qualities. Such is the rare greatness of this film. Most thrillers also thrive on implausibility. They depend on ridiculous twists that are put in simply to surprise the audience and take them off guard. There are plenty of surprises in this movie, but they feel more than just organic. They feel right and they are also rendered in such a low key manner that they actually gain punch because the movie does not seem to make a big deal about them. They are not telegraphed in advance or underlined with ominous music or effects. They simply arise, as such circumstances often do, I suppose, and that makes them all the more stunning. This is a thriller that is plotted and written with all the efficiency of a Swiss watch, and it’s completely absorbing as a result. The movie maintains a tone of menace and urgency, pushing ever forward like a hungry shark and never wasting a moment on anything trivial or mundane. There isn’t a second of wasted screen time here. There isn’t one line of dialogue that doesn’t fit, that doesn’t seem like something that would realistically be uttered by a person in the situation at hand. This film doesn’t feel overly commercial or manipulative. It does not tread the same paths as many other films that have the same plots. It rises above its genre and elevates its thriller foundations, using them to explore notions of valor and courage and corruption and even patriotism without speaking down to these subjects or even seeming to make a big deal of them. There is even a moment near the end where the lessons one of the main characters have learned have led him to a different life in a different country and the moment feels every bit as right as that moment at the end of “Dirty Harry” where Eastwood tosses his badge into the water, disgusted with the whole police process. The moment in this film may not have the power of that image but in its own way, it’s every bit as cynical and makes a rather ballsy statement. The direction and especially the tense, riveting dialogue of David Mamet are the real stars of this film. The characters are fascinating, despite their lack of obvious quirks or attention-drawing mannerisms. The characters are professionals in professional situations, for the most part, and it is refreshing to see them behave in such a way. These are not the sort of eccentric characters we might be treated to in a lesser film on these subjects, and yet they project a wealth of interesting facets and behaviors that draw the viewer into their plight as well as never hitting a false note. This is one of the most realistic-feeling films in the thriller genre that I have ever seen. For that, Mamet deserves the lion’s share of credit. I felt that one of his last films, “Heist” suffered from a certain overdose of quirky style. How thankful I am then for this film, in which the characters are hard men doing their job as best they can and the dialogue is not showy. The dialogue is hard and lean and effective and the actors deliver it as though spitting bullets. The production design and cinematography are also sleek and effective and overall beautiful without being showy. This is a no-nonsense movie and every artisan involved has done his or her part to ensure this.
That includes the actors. Val Kilmer stars as a relentless agent (we’re never entirely sure from which agency) assigned the task of bringing her back. The methods he employs in doing so are simply fascinating. Most of these methods were ones that I had never seen put to use in a film before. Kilmer is amazing here, better than I might have ever suspected. He is a man used to taking orders and following them immaculately until the moment when he must decide what to do for himself, the moment that he must trust to his own moral compass and figure out quite rapidly what that compass might be and where it might point. He is a no-nonsense, businesslike man, and yet we know the strength of his character and the type of man he is with a simple smattering of detail. It is not the amount of detail that makes a character, this movie seems to remind us, instead it is the quality of the details that we are given. Contrast his well rounded and tensely drawn character to the showier thumbnail sketches of characters that are given to us in 95% of Hollywood fare and maybe you will see my point. Kilmer takes a well-written role and delicately and intelligently rendered dialogue and runs with them. It is a relief to see him this good and hopefully will serve as a reminder to other directors that he is a force that can truly stun when properly utilized. (And, perhaps, from rumors I have heard, when he can keep his ego in check.) Derek Luke is also excellent as the young agent taken under Kilmer’s wing. The film takes the idea of the rookie character and gives it a little more weight, which Luke handles quite well. The roles given to William H. Macy, Ed O’ Neill (yes, Al Bundy himself), and Tia Texada (I liked her so much I looked her up on Internet Movie Database) all add nicely to the whole affair, enhancing it gracefully and detracting nothing from the immersive, mesmerizing whole.
Simply put, this is tense, gutsy, sleek and mentally stimulating entertainment that leaves you with a few things to think about when it’s all said and done. I love this movie. I love that this movie credits me with a brain and the ability to use it. And I love that this movie didn’t cop out or even go where any other movie with this plot might have led me. This is one hell of a film, perhaps the best one that Mamet has been involved in since his screenplay for “The Untouchables”, but that isn’t giving it enough credit. This film is the sort of movie that might someday be mentioned in the same breath with thrillers such as “3 Days of the Condor” and “The Manchurian Candidate”. Yes, film lovers, it’s just that great.