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Where deceit is truth and trust is a con game
By Mary Shaffer Deceit is truth, and trust is a con game to David Mamet. On stage and screen, the acclaimed playwright-turned-filmmaker creates a world where subtle role-playing replaces reality and ordinary words become weapons of seduction. He peoples his world with workaday hustlers -- actors, salesmen, shrinks, gamblers, lawyers, cops, criminals -- who rely on disguises to survive in an urban jungle where betrayal is the rule and redemption rare. They are loners inhabiting seedy poolrooms and exquisite mansions, seeking solace in psuedo families, competing for power and loyalty yet sharing wisdom and secrets. They speak in Mamet's distinct rhythmic, staccato style with words that reveal and obscure the truth. As Mamet has said, ''Drama is basically about ... somebody lying to somebody.'' His latest film, ''American Buffalo,'' is now scheduled for a July 12 release. Based on Mamet's 1975 play, it features Dustin Hoffman, Sean Nelson, and Dennis (''NYPD Blue'') Franz as low-life losers plotting the heist of a lifetime. ''On the surface, it's about the heist,'' Franz says, ''but the core of the story is about ... relationships.'' A warped relationship underscores ''House of Games,'' a clever psychological thriller that marked Mamet's cinematic directorial debut and earned him the Venice Film Festival's best screenplay prize. Lindsay Crouse (then Mrs. Mamet), playing a repressed psychologist specializing in addictive disorders, becomes obsessed with a team of professional con men led by Joe Mantegna. She abandons her safe, sterile office for the allure of danger, drawn deeper into their world and the inner workings of the confidence game, where she learns such tricks as The Tell, a gesture poker players look for to read an opponent's mind just as she reads subconscious clues in her patients' dreams. The key to the film is the intellectual and sexual power game between Crouse and Mantegna. But neither of them nor the audience recognize the larger cons being played until the very end. ''Writing for movies is really all about ... when and how to reveal information,'' says Mamet. Betrayal by the opposite sex is a recurring theme in Mamet's writing, including ''The Verdict,'' the courtroom drama that earned him an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay. Such betrayal is the focus of ''Oleanna,'' a film version of Mamet s play about a miscommunication between a female student and the male teacher (William H. Macy) she accuses of sexual harassment. Friendships between men are usually more positive and dominant in Mamet's universe, with older men often serving as mentors. Typical is the teaming of Kevin Costner's straight-laced, naive Elliot Ness and Sean Connery's tough, Irish street cop in Mamet's mythic screenplay adaptation of ''The Untouchables.'' Connery (who won a supporting actor Oscar) teaches Costner how to defeat Al Capone: ''He pulls a knife, you pull a gun; he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That s the Chicago way.'' A similar relationship develops in ''Things Change,'' a gentle comic fable directed and co-written by Mamet. Don Ameche plays an elderly immigrant shoeshine man who agrees to take a murder rap in exchange for a Chicago mobster's promise to fulfill the immigrant's dream of retiring to Sicily after jail. Mantegna is the inept henchman who can redeem himself with his Mafia family by guarding the old man for a weekend. Instead, he decides to treat his charge to a final fling in Tahoe. Once there, things change. The two become enmeshed in an increasingly complicated and comic series of misadventures based on false assumptions, mistaken identities and lucky coincidences. Ameche and Mantegna shared the best actor award at Venice. Mantegna balances cocky bravado with desperation as things slip out of his control. Ameche remains unflappable as a simple, honest man who plays at being rich and powerful yet retains his honor and integrity. If ''Things Change'' is Mamet s gentlest work, ''Homicide'' may be his bleakest, an unrelentingly dark tale of a man trapped by circumstances and betrayed by his own shortcomings. Mantegna stars as a hotshot homicide detective pulled off a major case to investigate the seemingly routine murder of a rich, elderly Jewish shopkeeper in a poor, black neighborhood. As he digs deeper, he uncovers what may be a sinister conspiracy involving Zionist terrorists and white supremacists. His discovery forces him to confront his own Jewish identity, a fact he suppressed to be accepted by fellow cops. Mantegna s internal conflict ends in a long, dark night where his personal ethics and professional skills and loyalties are pushed over the edge. Like many Mamet works, ''Homicide'' is about belonging. Coming from a broken home, Mamet found a family in the theatre and a regular ensemble of actors who bring his words to life, including Crouse, Macy, Mike Nussbaum, and Ricky Jay. But Mantegna remains Mamet's best interpreter and alter-ego. Born two weeks apart in Chicago, they didn't meet until the 1970s when Mantegna joined a Chicago theatre company where Mamet was associate artistic director. Their long and productive stage collaboration peaked in 1984 with Mantegna's Tony-award winning performance in ''Glengarry Glen Ross,'' a play that earned Mamet the Pulitzer Prize. Ironically, Mantegna isn't in the film version. Directed by James Foley, it traces one rain-drenched night in the lives of a handful of desperate real-estate salesmen whose jobs depend on closing deals and landing new leads. Despite some memorable scenes and great performances by an all- star male cast, the movie lacks Mamet's typical intellectual and emotional depth. The dialogue is excessively vulgar, the characters unsympathetic, and the plot predictable. It is a rare failure and shouldn't stop you from visiting ''Mametland,'' where nothing is ever as it seems.
Mary Shaffer works at Cal Poly. Jerry Bunin is a Telegram-Tribune reporter. Filmmography: Wrote and Directed
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