David Mamet, a prolific writer whose stock in trade has been adapting his stage work to the screen, directed his first movie in 1987 ("House of Games"). His writing and directing efforts achieved a high (arguably) with "The Spanish Prisoner" in 1997 and, a low (also arguably) with "State and Main" in 2000, a misfire in terms of character sympathy. His clipped, minimal dialogue comes from a very original voice, but it's one that can be found irritating, confusing and artificial. They're like verbal bullets trying to draw blood. The danger in it is in its artful artificiality and it's probably safe to say there's a limited audience for it. Eggheads, fans of legitimate theatre, academics are likely to be counted among those who line up for his challenging output.

"Spartan," a zesty and muscular thriller that he weaves out of the mythological exploits of special forces and clandestine law enforcement agencies (which may not exist), is commercial, intense, ruthlessly violent and energetically dramatic. That's if you can get past Mamet's style of dialogue distillation. His people talk funny, when they're inclined to talk at all. The interesting part is that when they do utter their spare dialogue, it's often with the power of understatement, when the writer finds the bare essentials of the scene or the Mamet statement. And, sometimes, he doesn't find the explosively telling line and the level of confusion is nothing short of baffling. Throughout the first 10-15 minutes of the film my thought was, "there's a whole lot of mystery going on." And most of it was in the difficulty to figure out the characters and how they fit into a story scheme.

Finally, it sorts itself out and we find ourselves in a president's daughter kidnapping straight out of the recent annals of West Wing (for those who don't watch TV, a highly successful political drama on NBC). But, Mamet sees in this generic outline an opportunity to introduce carnality, debasement and a low level of immorality. This president's daughter, Laura Newton (Kristen Bell), is the victim of the president himself, a man so determined to obtain sexual gratification that he "borrowed" her secret service detail in order to arrange a private liaison and made possible her abduction from her dorm room. The man's a snake.

The special operations military officers whose job it is to find the girl quickly realize that the kidnappers took the girl in order to make her a sex slave in a middle east brothel because they think she's a blond. Special agent Scott (Val Kilmer), his superiors and white house protector Burch (Ed O'Neill) know that if these worms discover her true identity and her value as a hostage, well... it's just the highest possible priority to extract her from their clutches. When the attempts to do that go awry, the president's team covers up the danger by faking her death in a drowning accident.

Scott (Val Kilmer) is the ace operative with the fewest words and the highest dedication to his job. He's so good at what he does, he trains people. He's also a man of the fewest possible attachments, a requirement for the heroic soldier working in the emotional vacuum of the clandestine world. Jackie Black (Tia Texada) is one of his loyal team members; Curtis (Derek Luke) is his latest recruit. When Scott is charged with tracking her down, Curtis is at his back. When the trail leads to Dubai and Jackie pleads to go there on his plane, Scott won't have it. But, charged by Burch to "go off the meter" (Mametspeak) and get the girl at any cost, his final play is in Dubai.

Performances are all spit and polish, clipped, intense, charged up. Kilmer, who plays the central focus of the film, smolders with conviction in pursuing justice. His focused concentration on his character's personal ethic in the secretive world of high-stakes crime is finely tuned and magnetic.

The story is full of operatives of all shades and persuasions while emotions are held in tight control. This is an effective action entry, taut and engaging in a male sense, creating atmosphere designed to hold military thriller fans in its high concept, muscular grasp.

                                      ~~  Jules Brenner