Dialogue mires ‘Prisoner’> World of genetic perfection fuels ‘Gattaca’

“The Spanish Prisoner.” Written and directed by David Mamet. Running time: 112 minutes. Rated PG (for mild language and some violent images). Nightly, May 18-21, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

The full range of David Mamet’s increasing limitations are on display in his latest, “The Spanish Prisoner,” a passable film of moderate interest that showcases just how deeply Mamet has fallen victim to his own formula, ego and hype.

The problem with “The Spanish Prisoner” isn’t so much that it’s a bad film (it’s mediocre), or that it moves too slowly (at times, the pace crawls), or that the film exists in an emotional vacuum (it does), or even that its characters live in a Xerox copy of the cold, antiseptic, indifferent world Mamet made famous in his early films and plays, but that it showcases nothing new, no fresh stretches of his once-considerable talent — nothing explored and certainly, for the viewer, nothing gained.

What bogs down “The Spanish Prisoner” is precisely — and ironically — what brought its director fame and a Pulitzer in the first place: his barbed, fragmented way of speaking. Once unique, his dialogue, known in certain circles as Mametese, now seems clumsy, contrived, at times ridiculous and naive. It still serves to express his paranoid view of reality, but it does so in a way that seems to be pulling away from the millennium even as we rocket toward it.

In Mamet’s world, no one is what they seem; money talks and the waters of commerce are alive with sharks. Such is the case in “The Spanish Prisoner,” which has nothing to do with a Spanish prisoner (the title refers to a complex con game) but everything to do with Joe Ross (Campbell Scott), an ambitious yuppie who has developed a highly sought-after — and potentially hugely profitable — concept known only as “The Process.”

Though we never learn what The Process is (this critic wished it had something to do with improving Mamet’s dialogue), we do suspect, along with Joe, that he is being taken by his boss (Ben Gazzara), whose promises that Joe will be financially rewarded for his efforts never quite ring true.

Fearful that he is being used, Joe enlists the help of Jimmy Dell (Steve Martin), a mysterious man of considerable wealth whom he met while on business in the Caribbean. But Dell, like so many of the people Joe meets, including his secretary Susan (Rebecca Pidgeon, Mamet’s wife), may or may not be what he seems, which would be great for us if these people, this plot, this film were less transparent.

“The Spanish Prisoner” wants to be compared to Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” and “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” but of course it falls short of those films. To rise to Hitchcock’s greatness, Mamet must first stop trying to control everything with language. He must allow his camera to do his talking for him, to linger on images as Hitchcock lingered, to lose the stilted dialogue that has failed him on screen and to give in, at last, to the ebb and flow of filmmaking.

Unfortunately, Mamet can’t — which, in this case, makes him the prisoner.

Grade: C-

Video of the Week

“Gattaca.” Written and directed by Andrew Niccol. Running time: 112 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for adult content, sexuality and language).

Imagine a world where perfection is genetically possible. Life begins not in the womb, but in the test tube, where sperm and egg are introduced not by the love of two committed individuals, but by a carefully inserted syringe that ignites the stirrings of life with the mere push of a thumb.

Clinically tampered with to weed out any number of deformities — which, in this world, could include skin color, sexuality, obesity, what have you — the result is a child whose possibilities are endless, as corporate doors swing wide to accept this “valid” individual into their ranks.

But what if you were created from a more natural form of coupling and still wanted all the perks of the genetically perfect? Such is the case with Vincent (Ethan Hawke), an “in-valid” who dreams of becoming a crew member on an expedition to Titan, one of Saturn’s moon. To do so, he first must land a job at Gattaca, a space station that routinely checks the “validity” of its employees by taking blood and urine samples.

Does Vincent make it inside? Of course — just in time to meet the woman of his dreams (Uma Thurman) and to be rooted out for a murder he did not commit.

A compelling variation of “Brave New World,” this stylish, provocative drama looks deep into the soulless perfection of the petri dish, where it sounds a warning bell for us all by showing exactly where our own world may be headed. See this.

Grade: B+

Christopher Smith, a writer and critic who lives in Brewer, reviews films each Monday in the NEWS.