"Spinning Man" is a neo-noir film that evolves into a suspenseful cat-and-mouse game between a philosopher professor, Evan Birch (Guy Pearce), and a seasoned detective, Robert Malloy (Pierce Brosnan). The professor is a specialist in the philosophy of language, and one of the intriguing parts of the film is the philosophical banter between the professor and the detective, who has a law degree and is clearly a skilled debater, as well as a savvy investigator.
According to the behind-the-scenes segment of the DVD, the film was based on a real event that inspired George Harrar 's book that was subsequently adapted into a screenplay. Brosnan identified "an eliptical sensibility" to the script. That is an apt way of describing the sense of how the film starts with a mundane incident by a lake and a missing person, then builds a story in a non-linear fashion as the philosophical issues start to supersede the crime drama.
A point made in the bonus track by the screenwriter was how the character of the professor was "self-destructive." That observation is revealing about the interpretation of the professor by actor Guy Pierce, who played the role with great confidence and no apparent intimidation felt from the aggressive the police detective. It was as if the actor was playing the opposite of what the character is really like, almost like a psychological defense mechanism.
Indeed, there were effective details in the film that offered psychological insights into the characters. The professor and his life were forced to leave Evanston following his inappropriate conduct with a young woman. Yet the professor has still kept a memento of a book a matches with the young woman's handwriting on the booklet, setting up a rendezvous. In the same vein, the detective relates to the professor how members of Alcoholics Anonymous carry a coin with them as a reminder not to take a drink. In two crucial moments of the film, the detective is scene handling such a coin.
Pearce described the film as "an explanation of human behavior and the fragility of one's identity." The film was successful in integrating philosophical discourse with a standard film thriller. One of the provocative ideas explored in the interaction between the professor and the detective was the thin line between "truth" and the individual's subjective "interpretation of truth."
By the end of the film, the detective has taken the professor to school with special insights into his own flawed character. The main narrative posits the question of what happened to the young woman in the incident at Hillside Lake. But the deeper focus is on a provocative human reality of memory, self-identity, and, the word that does not seem to be in the professor's vocabulary: denial.
According to the behind-the-scenes segment of the DVD, the film was based on a real event that inspired George Harrar 's book that was subsequently adapted into a screenplay. Brosnan identified "an eliptical sensibility" to the script. That is an apt way of describing the sense of how the film starts with a mundane incident by a lake and a missing person, then builds a story in a non-linear fashion as the philosophical issues start to supersede the crime drama.
A point made in the bonus track by the screenwriter was how the character of the professor was "self-destructive." That observation is revealing about the interpretation of the professor by actor Guy Pierce, who played the role with great confidence and no apparent intimidation felt from the aggressive the police detective. It was as if the actor was playing the opposite of what the character is really like, almost like a psychological defense mechanism.
Indeed, there were effective details in the film that offered psychological insights into the characters. The professor and his life were forced to leave Evanston following his inappropriate conduct with a young woman. Yet the professor has still kept a memento of a book a matches with the young woman's handwriting on the booklet, setting up a rendezvous. In the same vein, the detective relates to the professor how members of Alcoholics Anonymous carry a coin with them as a reminder not to take a drink. In two crucial moments of the film, the detective is scene handling such a coin.
Pearce described the film as "an explanation of human behavior and the fragility of one's identity." The film was successful in integrating philosophical discourse with a standard film thriller. One of the provocative ideas explored in the interaction between the professor and the detective was the thin line between "truth" and the individual's subjective "interpretation of truth."
By the end of the film, the detective has taken the professor to school with special insights into his own flawed character. The main narrative posits the question of what happened to the young woman in the incident at Hillside Lake. But the deeper focus is on a provocative human reality of memory, self-identity, and, the word that does not seem to be in the professor's vocabulary: denial.