House of Games (1987)

[thatguamguy]

Originally Posted by octagon

I think poorly delivered might be what raised all the eyebrows. That kind of rapid-fire patter is (obviously) not to everybody's tastes but it's very precisely crafted.

"Precisely crafted" is about the writing. "Poorly delivered" is about the acting/directing. They're not contradictory. While I do like Mamet as a director, I can't argue with anybody who finds the lack of inflection that he deliberately elicits from his actors to be unengaging.