Talking Points

The less you think about “The Negotiator,” the better off you are. It’s a measure of how pulsating and energetic a visual style director F. Gary Gray has, and how vividly actors Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey come across on screen, that this film is intensely watchable from minute to minute, even though a lot of what’s happening doesn’t stand up to a moment’s scrutiny.

The story of a police hostage negotiator forced by circumstances into taking hostages himself, this film is said to be based on an actual event. Its director and stars turn out to be so adept at pulling us rapidly through all kinds of situations that it’s a shock when we encounter the periodic speed bumps that the clunky James DeMonaco and Kevin Fox script creates.

Jackson and Spacey, friends from early in their acting careers and co-stars in “A Time to Kill,” apparently took this picture in part for the opportunity it presented to work together. Seeing these completely accomplished American actors light sparks off each other is a reminder of the way powerful performers elevate almost any kind of material.

Jackson has the more flamboyant role, playing Chicago police Lt. Danny Roman. He’s a 12-year veteran whose specialty is talking deranged hostage-takers into giving up their prisoners unharmed, something we see him trying to do in the film’s opening sequence.

Jackson is always a compelling actor, and in a film like this, which gives him wide latitude to be angry and unhappy, his intensity is as good as money in the bank. When Lt. Roman is holding the floor, nothing else, not even questions of plausibility, matter much at all.

Newly married and determined to leave his risky ways behind him, Roman nevertheless gets drawn into a scandal involving $2 million missing from a police disability fund. Suddenly (in fact, much too suddenly to be believed), Roman becomes a murder suspect, his badge gets taken away, and everyone he knows resolutely turns their back on him.

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Especially onerous is Inspector Niebaum (the always reliable J.T. Walsh in his last role), the dour head of the Chicago police’s Internal Affairs Division. When Roman charges into Niebaum’s office, insisting he’s being set up, all he gets in return is a practiced sneer. Not a wise choice.

Screaming “I’m not going to jail today” and the ever-popular “We’re not leaving here,” Roman takes Niebaum, his secretary, a weaselly criminal and a police commander named “Frosty” Frost (Ron Rifkin) hostage.

Naturally, Roman’s experience as a negotiator means he knows more about the do’s and don’t’s of taking hostages than anyone within earshot. Determined to clear his name, he insists that he’ll only deal with Chris Sabian (Spacey), a negotiator from another precinct he knows by reputation as someone who will never stop trying to talk his way to a solution.

Cool and unflappable, a family man who reads history and biographies in his spare time, Sabian is presented as the cerebral opposite of the more visceral Roman. Despite the obviousness of the setup, Spacey gives the kind of involving performance he’s known for, and both actors clearly relish the chance to match up and fence with each other as they try to get to the bottom of the crimes in question.

Because trigger-happy types like Commander Adam Beck (an excellent David Morse) are always trying to break in on Roman, “The Negotiator” is filled with moments of conflict as police helicopters continually hover and only the slightest encouragement is needed to get SWAT team members to rappel down skyscrapers.

None of this is particularly new and exciting, but director Gray, whose last film was “Set It Off,” another gritty urban drama, acts like it is. Working with editor Christian Wagner, who also cut John Woo’s “Face/Off,” Gray sets a brisk, page-turner pace and refuses to let it flag. He won’t be stopped, not even by cheesy plot points that no one will buy, and there is certainly something to be said for that.

* MPAA rating: R, for violence and language. Times guidelines: not nearly as violent as most current thrillers.

‘The Negotiator’

Samuel L. Jackson: Danny Roman

Kevin Spacey: Chris Sabian

David Morse: Commander Beck

Ron Rifkin: Commander Frost

John Spencer: Chief Travis

J.T. Walsh: Inspector Niebaum

Regency Enterprises presents a Mandeville Films/New Regency production, released by Warner Bros. Director F. Gary Gray. Producers David Hoberman, Arnon Milchan. Executive producers David Nicksay, Robert Stone, Webster Stone. Screenplay by James DeMonaco & Kevin Fox. Cinematographer Russell Carpenter. Editor Christian Wagner. Costume designer Francine Jamison-Tanchuck. Music Graeme Revell. Production design Holger Gross. Art director Kevin Ishioka. Set decorator Richard Goddard. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.

* Playing in general release throughout Southern California.