The Negotiator . Austin Chronicle . 08-10-98

The Negotiator

DIRECTED BY: F. Gary Gray

REVIEWED: 08-10-98

Another solid, cerebral actioner from Gray (Set It Off) that makes the most of black-male-rage icon Jackson and an equally impressive (if a bit chilly) Spacey alongside the late, great Walsh and 12 Monkeys' Morse. Jackson is Chicago P.D. hostage negotiator Danny Roman, who lands squarely in a world of hurt when he's framed both for the murder of his partner and embezzlement from the C.P.D.'s retirement coffers. Roman and the audience know that it's a setup from the get-go, because his partner clued him in to the embezzlement investigation just preceeding his untimely demise. When internal affairs, headed by Walsh's slimy Inspector Niebaum, takes an undue interest in the negotiator soon after the killing, Roman realizes he's being framed by the very men he's worked side by side with for years. He storms the offices of internal affairs, taking Niebaum, his secretary, Rifkin's Commander Frost, and a street-level thug hostage while a roomful of stunned cops look on. That Roman could traipse through a roomful of pistol-packing police while he's waiting for arraignment is one of several head-scratchers to be found here, but Jackson's performance raises what might otherwise have been just another cops 'n' robbers film to much greater heights. Ensconced in the 20th-floor I.A. offices, Roman begins to interrogate the bullish Niebaum (whom his partner implicated in the embezzling scam) and then calls in his own hostage negotiator to deal with the situation. Chris Sabian (Spacey) is the man, and though he works outside of Roman's territory, the two have a passing awareness of each other. Like Roman, Sabian is supposed to be the best negotiator on his team, and though he enters the fray unaware and essentially uncaring about the stakes Roman is playing for, the pair begin to gel as their negotiation styles collide. Roman, the hotshot daredevil liar, and Sabian, the earnest family man, are tacitly acting from two decidedly different styles, but both of them make their livings -- and implicitly are defined by -- their abilities in the fine art of bullshitting. So who's kidding who ends up being the real mystery here. Gray keeps things interesting between the tense volleys of negotiation with glimpses and snippets of the corrupt cops' ongoing war of attrition against Roman. You never quite know who are the good cops and who are the bad until the final reel, though glimmers of the truth bleed out around the edges of Gray's film. Like Jackon, Spacey is a commanding screen presence; it's hard to imagine a more perfectly cast foil for motor-mouthed Danny Roman. Spacey's cool, laconic delivery is a mirror image of Jackson's hyper-charged mouth -- paired together it's like watching two sides of the same coin. The Negotiator falls short of greatness by a country mile; it's too chatty for its own good sometimes. But it's still a solid shoot-'em-up. And it's always nice to see Samuel L. Jackson work that mad mouth mojo.

--Marc Savlov

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The Negotiator
The Negotiator

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The Negotiator

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