Homicide

Mamet's third film comes from a disturbing thriller, Suspects, by William Caunitz. Honest cop Bobby Gold (Mantegna) is taken off a hot case to babysit a Jewish family. An old pawnbroker has been murdered, and the family, fearing an anti-semitic conspiracy, believe that they're next. Gold starts out resenting the assignment, but gradually begins to accept their take on events. His long-suppressed Jewishness surfaces. The twist at the end is devastating, forcing you to view the film as a character study rather than a thriller, which places it in the Detective Story and The Offence bag. Unfortunately, the transitions are sometimes abrupt and unconvincing, despite Mantegna's intensity. We can see how bigotry drives him away from his adoptive police family toward his own people, but not how his new militancy escalates so steeply. Gripping, though.