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The cops, wise guys, and hustlers Mantegna has portrayed in David Mamet's films and plays have prepared him well for stepping into the shoes of this crime fiction icon. Spenser is a literate, well-spoken private eye who, as one acquaintance notes here, "can't be frightened, bribed, or seduced." Nor intimidated, as we witness in his handling of three lowlifes who attempt to warn him off a case. Spenser is investigating whether Ellis Alves, a young black man who was convicted of murdering a white honors student, was framed. The case itself is not especially compelling (nor is Spenser's relationship with psychologist Susan Silverman, portrayed by Marcia Gay Harden). The fun is watching Spenser stand up to a corrupt cop who threatens, "You go down that road, pal, you're going to get a lot of people angry at you... including me." But in classic, hard-boiled tradition, Spenser will not be swayed, which leads to his near-fatal shooting (that never happened to Robert Urich). Luckily, he has friends in low places, including his partner, Hawk (Shiek Mahmud-Bey, a little more animated than the glowering Avery Brooks on the television series), a self-described "thug," as well as some wise guys who help track down Spencer's would-be assassin.
Freed from the constraints of network television, Small Vices indulges in some mild profanity, sexual situations, and nudity that give this production some added pulp panache. --Donald Liebenson
| CATEGORY: | Video |
| DIRECTOR: | Robert Markowitz |
| THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE: | 18 July, 1999 |
| MANUFACTURER: | A&E Home Video |
| MPAA RATING: | NR (Not Rated) |
| FEATURES: | Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC |
| TYPE: | Feature Film-drama, Movie, Mystery / Suspense, Mystery / Suspense / Thriller, TV Shows |
| MEDIA: | VHS Tape |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
| UPC: | 733961174120 |
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Customer Reviews of Small Vices / TV Movie
Susan, Susan, Susan .... The star of this film is Marcia Gay Harden. Joe Mantegna as Spenser is very good- because he comes forward as a literate Spenser, and delivers the lines written by Parker very well. Mantegna chose Harden for the role, and he chose well. <
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>Toronto resembles Boston in winter, although the Canadian police uniforms don't look at all like those of Boston's finest. <
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>The Toronto setting led to a number of other small, but notable, details. The bus that takes Ellis Alves away from prison sports a Boston "T". The Suffok County Courthouse is played by the Colorado State Capital building. And, while the book's settings bounce between Boston and New York, that changing scene is not apparent in the film. The film's denoument in the museum is prefaced with an exterior shot of the Royal Ontario Museum (flying the stars and stripes on its flagstaff). After a year of Spenser being dead, Corsetti doesn't seemed at all surprised to find him in the museum, although the book places that scene at Rockefeller Plaza. <
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>I had hoped that more Spenser films starring Harden and Mategna would be forthcoming- perhaps they will.
This is a strange first choice for the new Spenser cast
It is interesting to me that even though I believe I watched most of one episode of the television series "Spenser for Hire" that when I worked my way through the extant Robert B. Parker novels in chronological order one summer that Avery Brooks was definitely Hawk in my mind's eye. However, I did not think of Robert Urich as Spenser. While I did think Urich had the general build of Spenser as described in the novels (to wit, ex-boxer) I did not hear him saying the witty lines written for the character by Parker. In "Small Vices," Joe Mantegna plays the part of Spenser and while I never would have thought of him for the role if I was doing the casting, I do think that for the most part he delivers the one-liners pretty well. However, I certainly do not think of him as being an ex-boxer.
For the record, I consider Marcia Gay Harden to be an ideal Susan Silverman but Shiek Mahmud-Bey is just too young to be Hawk.
Ultimately, with "Small Vices," I am more troubled by the fact it was somehow selected to be the first Spenser television movie with this new cast. I know it was because it was, at that time, the most recently published Spenser novel. Parker adapted his own novel so certainly the dialogue is in the spirit of the original words on the printed page. But "Small Vices" was the 24th Spenser for Hire novel and anybody come newly or lately to the character in novels and/or television incarnations is not going to appreciate the relationships as they stand and this point in the history of the characters. That is of vital importance, because as the teaser to "Small Vices" shows, this story is about the time that Spenser encountered someone who may well be his superior as an opponent.
My major complaint against the adaptation in the final analysis is that the psychological damage done to Spenser's psyche, as well as the long period involved in his physical recovery, is barely sketched out in the film. The novel took the time to develop both in much detail, which is why "Small Vices" was one of the very best of Parker's Spenser novels. Consequently, my response to this adaptation was that both the character and the viewers were being shortchanged by this brevity. I would have saved this pivotal Spenser story for later in this series of adaptations, assuming, of course, that it continues for sometime to come. Still, Spenser fans will see something here for the writer and cast to build upon.
Not very exiting.
I have an image of Spenser from reading the books - that of a big guy with an 18 inch neck, 50 inch chest and 18 inch arms. Very strong and above all, very physical. Joe Mantegna is a good actor but (for me) just does not cut it as Spenser. He is just not big enough! Robert B. Parker himself, plays 'Ives' in one scene and it is clear to me that he based Spenser (at least physically) upon himself - although he denies this. Sheik Mahumud-Bey is too nice to be Hawk whom I see as menacing but articulate. Casting aside, the story was slow and quite frankly boring. By the time it ended I did not care what happened to the characters. It was treated as more of a love story between Spenser and Susan than a detective story.