The thing for which any good fiction writer strives, regardless of the medium, is an authentic and unique voice. What makes David Mamet one of the great living American writers, for both stage and screen, is the fact that countless people have tried to imitate his style, but only Mamet sounds like Mamet.
Homicide might not be the film House of Games or The Verdict (which he wrote with Sidney Lumet directing) is, but this unique voice is on full display. This is also the Mamet film that is most obviously a reflection on Mamet's own world view and sense of identity: the complex identity of the modern Jew. Mamet himself is a staunch supporter of Israel, and his book on the subject of Jewish identity, "The Wicked Son," was a deconstruction of "the self-hating Jew," which he defined himself as before his "awakening" (Mamet is also now a conservative, and refers to NPR as "National Palestine Radio"). The key scene in the film is when the lead character, a Jew played by Joe Mantegna investigating the murder of an elderly Jewish woman, confesses to a Jewish woman that he had been denying his heritage for years, all because his co-workers derided him and the Jews. It's a powerful scene, one of many in the film.
The one issue with the film that I have is perhaps the expected one, which is that the movie feels too judgmental of its lead character, and too aligned with the Jews that live their lives defined by their religion. Mamet is so tied up in his own world that instead of a complex portrait of someone struggling with their identity, the film seems focused on its message. Still, a highly enjoyable movie.
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