A very nicely woven tapestry of storytelling intrigue and potential red herrings. It seems nothing is happening but the anticipation of something happening is palpable. Then it turns out something was actually happening all along - we just didn't see it.

Mamet giving us moments of predictability and then taking those away is exactly what makes the film unpredictable and delectable. Ricky Jay could use some more screen time as he gets all the good one-liners.

There is a couple moments of convenient plot contrivances and one instance of terrible, "hint hint" dialogue, but outside of that this is a very enjoyable thriller that will easily steal your attention away from whatever you're doing.

"Beware of all enterprises requiring new clothes." - Words of Wisdom from David Mamet, or more specifically, David Henry Thoreau.

This twisty-turny triple-con starts off slow, and then slows way down. But the pleasure is in the walk down the rabbit hole with Campbell Scott, and honest working math genius who has his miracle macguffin...er...process threatened to be stolen by outside interests to his company; a company who is also, likely, trying to screw him over. It is a rude awakening for our Boyscout (literally) patsy John Ross (Scott) but a smartly written meditation on vanity and hubris, concentration-interuptus from a pretty woman and where good intentions (and too many assumptions) all too often lead.

The Ricky Jay supporting role is sublime, and he gets most of the great quotable lines (as he does in Heist and House of Games...other well oil'd David Mamet confidence-machines.

A gorgeous, Machiavellian tale of sleight of hand deception and greed. Mamet, as ever, the master of a tightly wound plot and even tighter wound characters. Even the cipher, glass half empty "talents" of Campbell Scott can't detract from this gem.

I've somehow seen this movie 3 times, which is a pretty damn rare thing for me.

It's genuinely intriguing, with plenty of surprises in the storyline but not in a one-dimensional, all about-the-twists way.

Downside is that it is just intriguing, rather than tense, which for a thriller is far from ideal. It's all pretty stagey - many scenes involve 2 people conversing against a single backdrop, and Mamet's famous dialogue is ... not delivered in the way we're used to in movies. Both made it hard for me to just let go and immerse myself.

Still, really clever and well worth at least one watch.

Oh yeah, and if you're wondering how Steve Martin is in a serious role, he's absolutely fine...

An extremely thrilling film with an ending that was sadly too simple to match.

Μάμετ σου λέει.

Great setup and a good watch. Although I thought the ending could have unraveled better

A very nicely woven tapestry of storytelling intrigue and potential red herrings. It seems nothing is happening but the anticipation of something happening is palpable. Then it turns out something was actually happening all along - we just didn't see it.

Mamet giving us moments of predictability and then taking those away is exactly what makes the film unpredictable and delectable. Ricky Jay could use some more screen time as he gets all the good one-liners.

There is a couple moments of convenient plot contrivances and one instance of terrible, "hint hint" dialogue, but outside of that this is a very enjoyable thriller that will easily steal your attention away from whatever you're doing.

Mamet really brought his A-game on this one. Twists galore and fantastic dialogue.

Nothing is what it seems in David Mamet’s trust-nobody thriller starring Campbell Scott as the inventor of the “Process”, a sophisticated get rich scheme that his employers hope to exploit to full advantage. Increasingly suspicious that he may not get his cut, Scott is befriended by a wealthy businessman (Steve Martin) who offers to help. We follow the inventor and his formula through a labyrinth of plot-reversals, betrayals, chance encounters, and sleights-of-hand from the Caribbean to New York and finally Boston for the film’s slightly unconvincing denouement. Like Mamet’s first feature House of Games, The Spanish Prisoner explores the intimate machinations of high-stakes trickery and the fine art of the con with a soft touch.

Kind of intriguing, but where there should be Hitchcockian sprightliness lies dead-handed deus-ex-machinations; or at least it feels that way. Scott is likeable-dumb-handsome, but Martin is the star playing against type and giving a freer rein to the darkness that always seems to lie beneath his comedy. Rebecca Pidgeon (Mamet's wife) damn near kills the film stone dead with a pancake flat turn and a fatal delivery of the playwright's aphasic, declamatory dialogue. You need to be the best in the business to make his words sing; she ain't that.

Some nice pre-9/11, pre-banking crisis stuff about travel + economy, and a surprising sub-thread about the invisibility of Asian-Americans. But now Mamet's a neo-con nut, so whatever.

I think I prefer Mamet's stuff when it's just guys shouting at each other.

Decent plot, but that's all there was to it. Steve Martin was a highlight, as were the random Asian-American characters at the end. But the shallow characterisation and flatly delivered dialogue couldn't be overcome by plot twists alone.