SPARTAN
"Where's the girl?" Those unfamiliar with David Mamet's trademark dialogue style my lose patience with Spartan after this line is repeated for the thousandth time, somewhere around the halfway point. I'm a big Mamet fan myself, though I have mixed feelings about the way his dialogue translates to the screen. It worked in State and Main, The Winslow Boy, and The Spanish Prisoner; I felt Heist bogged down under the hyper-stylized line readings. One thing is certain: actors sure love that dialogue! Some have a facility for it (Mamet regulars Bill Macy and Joe Mantegna, Alec Baldwin's show-stopping performance in Glengarry Glen Ross); others get tripped up (the usually great Gene Hackman in Heist); part of the fun is seeing how different actors adapt to the Mametized world.

In Spartan, we get Val Kilmer, who's often quite a good actor, but rather dependent upon the material and director. We get a genre picture about men of action and few words. We get double crosses and double-double crosses. All the signs point to a terrific suspense flick. And that's what we get...for the most part.

Kilmer plays Bobby Scott, a special-ops commando called in to rescue the President's daughter, a Harvard student who has been abducted. Interestingly enough, the phrase "President's daughter" is never uttered in the film; one can almost see Mamet hunched at the typewriter, whiting out all instances of the words in the script. In a way, though, the absence of exposition is welcome; in other dramas of this school, including the addictive TV show 24, the writers invariably feel the need to offer up some government functionary who exists only to add weight to the situation with unbelievable lines like, "You've got to save her! SHE'S THE PRESIDENTS DAUGHTER!" None of that nonsense here, we jump right into the story without preamble, and if, like the annoying couple behind me at the theater, you're not paying close attention, you'll get left behind.

The title refers in one sense to Bobby: he's a career soldier who follows orders swiftly and effectively; he protects himself by not asking questions. If his orders dictate that he kill a man, he does it without reflection. However, when it becomes clear that all is not as it seems and that he may have been used to further a secret agenda, he goes "off the reservation." It would be unfair to detail too much of the plot; suffice to say it is not especially novel. Its joys lie in the unraveling, in Kilmer's kick-ass-first-ask-questions-never schtick, and in Mamet's dialogue (if you like that sort of thing).

Mostly, the actors do well with it. Derek Luke is great as a raw trainee selected to be on Bobby's team. Ed O'Neill and Mamet stalwart William H. Macy do good turns as black-ops spooks, and Kristen Bell is good as the kidnapped POTUS-spawn. Kilmer does solid work here; he delivers the lines with a low, earnest intensity and a good ear for their natural rhythms (for, despite some critics' claims to the contrary, there is a naturalistic component to Mamet dialogue if delivered correctly). In fact, the only scene where he's simply not believable is one in which we glimpse Scott's life outside work, where he orders seed from a country store-Ha!

The film falters a bit at the climax, but it's nothing that made me feel cheated. I can confidently recommend this film if you're a Mamet fan or a fan of the 24 school of political thriller. If you're not acquainted with either, you may leave the theater scratching your head, like those annoying people behind me.

3.5 out of 5 (Raise to 4 if you're a Mamet aficionado)