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Starring Samuel Jackson, Kevin Spacey. Released to DVD on November 24, 2000. Scripts that are based in reality, that supposedly deal with real life situations and emotions face a problem unique to their particular genre: the lack of suspension of disbelief in the viewer. Films like Star Wars, Star Trek, or Jurassic Park are deemed science fiction and thus, whatever the writer or director cares to put on screen is acceptable. From Wookies to Klingons to fat guys stealing dinosaur embryos, quite simply, it's all good. However, in the case of The Negotiator, a film set firmly within the confines of 20th century society, and in our fair city of Chicago at that, I was expecting to see the characters behaving in a rathional and law-abidding manner, something similar to the way I am used to people behave in real life. Unfortunately, it's doubtful that anything futher from this could be the case. So, while the action in The Negotiator may be tense and relativtely enjoyable, the entertainment value of the overall product is substantially lessoned by the fact that, even in Never Never Land, the events in The Negotiator just wouldn't happen.Samuel L. Jackson, wearing an astonishingly bad brown wig, stars as Danny Roman, Chicago's top hostage negotiator. He can talk anybody in or out of doing anything, up to and including watching Waterworld. One night, he has agreed to meet his partner in Franklin Park to discuss the on-going investigation into the isapperaing police pension fund. Jackson's partner arrives early, meets with a bullet, and when Jackson arrives on scene, is promptly charged with a murder he did not commit. Then, despite Jackson's complete innocence, he his booted off the force and things are looking good that he will be able to take a 25 year to life vacation in Joliet or Menard. So, in the normal, rational manner that most truly innocent men have, Jackson storms into Internal Affairs and takes people hostage demanding to know the truth. The mystery behind the frame-up of Jackson is interesting--it takes a real screenwriting hack to conceive of a mystery that doesn't captivate its audience--but F. Gary Gray lack of perspective, allowing the action to unfold at its own pace seemed strange. Occasionally, this style of unbiased camera usage, a style very familiar to the works of Chris Columbus, can be used to an advantage when dealing with light, comical stories, much like Gray's prior film, Friday, where complex dolly shots and heavy use of steadi-cam merely add confusion to the material unfolding on screen. However, in motion pictures where there is an underlying sense of deception, where the lead character has been framed for committing a heinous murder, I was expecting to see swiling camera movements to create an even more palapable feeling of helplessness for Jackson, and high angle setups to show Jackson's alienation from others, but these techniques don't make any real appearances. Kevin Spacey makes a real appearance though, and his delectable, delicious acting style and obvious enjoyment for his work positively shine in The Negotiator. Jackson is a very capable actor, but he doesn't bring a true sense of life to his character as he did in Pulp Fiction and Jungle Fever, and Spacey does on a picture to picture basis. James DeMonaco and Kevin Fox's script gets point for creating the atmosphere of a dark mystery, but is ripe with eyebrow raising occurrences that look strangely out of place and against proper police procedure, regardless of whether 90% of the cops in the movie are on the take. The Negotiator will be good for one viewing providing that you flip your brain into the 'off' position while the opening credits role.
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