Shot in a cramped and stage-like style, and sounding like warmed- over Mamet, Swimming With Sharks tries to go for the big picture but comes up empty from the first frame to the last.

The picture's raison d'être has to be Spacey's 'loud and nasty' performance: he's the sort of actor who grabs you by the throat and beats you about the head without ever lifting his feet from the desk.

Mr. Spacey's Buddy is a caricature so dazzling that even Buddy might have to say something nice about it: cool, withering, studiously suave, and spurred by impulses that might seem peevish even in a 2-year-old child.

'Swimming with Sharks', although it is peak 90s in terms of some scripted dialog on outdated movie references about Shelly Winters and has some super choppy editing, is a fantastic movie to watch.