 Two months later, upon the film's UK release, Anne Billson of "The Daily Telegraph" concluded "The film's principal interest lies, as it always does with Mamet, in the hypnotic language; repeat your sentences about 20 times, shuffling the word order, repeat the first name of whomever you're talking to as though it were a mantra, add a judicious sprinkling of obscenities, and you've got the general idea.Franz, of television's "NYPD Blue", is terrific, but Hoffman, performing in 'street' mode, complete with long greasy hair, never allows you to forget that he's reciting lines.Eventually the hypnotic repetitiveness of the language and the total lack of action did their work, and the dreaded Sandman, who hovers constantly at the shoulder of all film reviewers, paid me one of his visits."