David Mamet's directorial debut with HOUSE OF GAMES which he also wrote is a twisty, post modern film noir with loads of his trademark "street poetry". Not nearly as terse or profain as say his marvelous Glengarry Glenn Ross but entertaining none-the-less as the story about a psychiatrist getting way in over her head with a gang of con artists. Joe Mantengna is certainly in his element being a Mamet veteran, but it is strangley his then wife Lindsay Crouse who sometimes doesn't measure up tot he task of playing his anti heroine. Many fun crosses and double crosses along the way with the other cast members including a J.T. Walsh, Mike Nussbaum and a very young W.H. Macy.