Mamet brings more than a decade's worth of filmmaking experience to his latest project, and his skill as a director has improved considerably.
– Kenneth Turan,
Los Angeles Times,
14 Feb 2001
fresh:
There's something fresh, even restorative, in watching an American studio movie that doesn't treat the movie-going audience like a bunch of gullible marks.
– Liam Lacey,
Globe and Mail,
12 Apr 2002
fresh:
David Mamet's most consistently enjoyable film to date is a cool, typically clever con-trick drama packed with deliciously inventive twists that get ever more convoluted and unnerving as the plot proceeds.
– Derek Adams,
Time Out,
9 Feb 2006
fresh:
The Spanish Prisoner shares with Glengarry Glen Ross a vision of life as a cosmic con game in which the victimizers feed the fantasies of the victims.
– Andrew Sarris,
New York Observer,
27 Apr 2007
fresh:
David Mamet has a penchant for sleight-of-hand thrillers, and The Spanish Prisoner is his craftiest to date.