THE most disappointing Mamet movie I have seen so far---and I have seen more than a dozen. Mamet lost his mojo 2/3 into the movie, and it's the surprisingly cliched and sloppy last 1/3 that defines this film. The feel-good ending is, even by Hollywood standard, is implausible and cheap to the extreme. The low-rent, Karate-Kid-style male fantasy here is juvenile and sickening. Mamet the Magician here put the lie to Mamet the Realist.
The real 'suspense' of the film is: why did Mamet do it? Has he got an early onslaught of dementia? Male PMS? Or was he broke way ahead of us in the recent financial crisis?