In my opinion, Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey are the two greatest actors in current cinema. I do not know of any other actors who can make a film worth watching just because they're in it. But Kevin's done it with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and Sam's done it in numerous films like Kiss of Death and Sphere. So, knowing this, can you expect me to give a bad review to a film which stars both of them. No, you can't. And I can't, especially because the Negotiator was such a good film.
Jackson plays Danny Roman, one of Chicago's finest police officers and one of the Nation's (US) best negotiators. And while Danny may be great at handling stressed out whacko's, he's not so good in his raport with his co-workers who don't like his assumption of authority and his constant risk taking.
After his latest successful negotiation, Danny relaxes with his team at a bar, but his celebration is interrupted when his partner tells him about an insurance scam within the department, the scam also involving members of the department of internal investigation. The next day, Danny's partner is killed, and he's been framed for murder. Insinuation that Danny killed his best friend and that he was involved in the imbezzlement send him over the edge, and Danny takes the biggest risk of his career: he takes the head of internals hostage. So what do you do when one of the best negotiators has to be negotiated with, and he knows all of your tricks and all of your moves? You do exactly as he says.
Danny requests that he be negotiated with, and only with, Chris Sabian (Spacey), who is also a top negotiator from a different Chicago precinct. Chris takes over the tactical reins of the hostage situation, much to the chagrin of Seargent Beck, who has seemingly a lot of animosity towards Danny and Chris (played very nicely by the underrated David Morse). Meanwhile the FBI is watching over the entire negotiation very closely, ready to take over at any time (since it is a federal building). Danny gives Chirs his list of demands, starting with Chris helping him to find the guy who killed his partner, find the people behind the embezzlement, and finally the return of his police badge.
You know what will happen, of course, because the film is seriously formulae derived. Chris and Danny have tense relationship, they talk, they join up as the FBI takes over, they find the bad guy, it all works in the end. But there's a lot more to the film than that, including rich secondary characters both inside and outside the hostage situation. J.T. Walsh, one of cinema and t.v.'s great bad guys, plays the head of Internals and a suspect for involvement in the embezzlement. The film is rife with intense situations... the film is an intense situation. No film has ever captivated me and held me in such great suspense for so long. Sam Jackson does a great job as Danny Roman, leaving you often to wonder if he's really gone crazy of if he's really cunning... or if he's really involved in the insurance scam. Director F. Gary Gray does a magnificent job of building the suspence, the mystery, and the relationships between the characters (especially between Jackson and Spacey, who instantly have a great raport with one another on screen). And while it's always very tense, there is plenty of humour (greatly enhanced by the situation).
In a story which consists more of two men talking to one another than anything else, it could easily have been dull, but the Negotiator is one of the best films I have seen this year, and one of the best ever to combine the mystery, suspence and action genres.