Spartan Review
by Susan Granger (ssg722 AT aol DOT com)March 11th, 2004
Susan Granger's review of "Spartan" (Warner Bros.)
Writer/director David Mamet's new political thriller starts off in high gear with Val Kilmer as Robert Scott, a brutal special-ops Secret Service officer who's training new recruits. Scott's top rookie (Derek Luke) becomes his protégé when they're assigned to find Laura Newton (Kristen Bell), the rebellious daughter of a high-ranking government official, presumed to be the President of the United States. Missing from her dorm at Harvard, Laura was last seen at a sleazy Boston bar, her signature red hair bobbed and bleached blonde. The Secret Service has only the weekend to track her down because, if she misses Monday's classes, the press will grab the story.
Complicating the chase is a timely sex trafficking subplot involving elusive agents shipping blonde American girls off to a halfway house in Dubai and then on to Yemen. Could one of them have, unknowingly, grabbed Laura Newton and put her in the pipeline? Is she leaving cryptic clues behind? And what's the clandestine agenda of an Executive operative (William H. Macy) who insinuates himself into the abduction rescue? Could there be a corrupt political conspiracy that will prevent the extraction of the hostage from Dubai?
There are far more questions than answers. David Mamet's writing and direction are calculatingly convoluted and deliberately complicated, unlike his more accessible "Heist." Juan Ruiz Anchia's photography, Barbara Tulliver's editing and Gemma Jackson's production design reveal little. So on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Spartan" is a far-fetched, frustrating 4. "It's all in the mind," insists Scott. "That's where the battle's won." But when the suspenseful plot is ultimately unraveled, it turns out to be a cynical cinematic riddle that still makes little sense.
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