The Spanish Prisoner Details

Slow Burning but Effective Con Thriller

The Spanish Prisoner takes its name from one of the oldest confidence trick known. A rich man promises the hand of his sister for the aid of a noble man. This update of the idea takes place in modern day America where a mathematician is near completion of a formula that will make his company billions. However, things begin to get darker when he befriends a rich businessman and begins to fall for the new secretary.

The Spanish Prisoner is a slow burning film that takes a while to get going but when it does you really feel for the character being taken for a ride. He does not know who to trust and is only vice is being too nice.

The film shows its low budget and the pace could have been faster but as an intelligent adult film it holds its own. If you liked ?Matchstick Men? and ?Confidence? but prefer your films a little more highbrow then this could be for me.

I was really looking forward to watching this, but it turned out to be a bit of a disappointment.

The trademark Mamet dialogue and elaborate plotting is there, so are the excellent performances, but somehow it doesn?t really work. Maybe this is because the film is trying too hard to be a commercial success with material that isn?t mainstream stuff.

The leading actress was very nice to look at, but apart from that it was just an average movie.