The Negotiator

Directed by F. Gary Gray, The Negotiator follows Samuel L. Jackson’s Danny Roman as he takes several individuals, including J.T. Walsh’s Terence Niebaum and Paul Giamatti’s Rudy Timmons, hostage after being accused of embezzling cash and murdering his partner – with the movie detailing the efforts of assigned hostage negotiator Chris Sabian (Kevin Spacey) to end the crisis peacefully. It’s a promising setup that never quite translates into the engrossing, enthralling thriller one might’ve anticipated, as the movie, which runs an often palpably overlong 140 minutes, suffers from an erratic, padded-out feel that results in a curious (and distressing) lack of forward momentum – which does, in turn, prevent the picture’s overtly exciting interludes from possessing the spellbinding feel Gray has undoubtedly intended. There’s little doubt, then, that The Negotiator‘s mild success is due predominantly to its smattering of admittedly electrifying sequences, including a tense face-off between Jackson and Spacey’s respective characters, and uniformly top-notch assortment of performances, with, in terms of the latter, the talented leads’ first-class work matched (and then some) by an impressively stacked periphery cast that includes, among others, David Morse, Paul Giamatti, John Spencer, and Ron Rifkin – which, when coupled with a fairly exciting closing stretch, cements the film’s place as a decent-enough endeavor that generally feels like it could (and should) be so much better (ie this would’ve been far more effective had it topped out at around two hours).

**1/2 out of ****