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Once inside the shop, waiting for customers who never come, Bobby gets sent off to buy breakfast while Don and Teach bitch about their situation. However, when Bobby returns he, semi-secretly, tells Don that "he" has left, probably for the weekend. Such secret-agent stuff piques Teach's curiosity, particularly as he's always on the look-out for a quick buck. So, be squeezing Don, the truth is gradually revealed, centring on a particular man who came into the store and, after much toing-and-froing, ended up buying a nickel coin for $90 (which Don thought was worthless). After some thought, Don and Bobby jumped to the conclusion that this man was a wealthy coin collected, who they've decided to rob. Well, Teach wants in on such a scheme and he's willing to do almost anything to achieve this.
An edgy, dialogue-rich, one-act drama, American Buffalo plugs three fine actors into an examination of morality, honour and ruthlessness. Thrown together by the desire to commit a simple burglary, Don, Teach and Bobby are forced into a bluffing game, their predatory circling echoing the poker game. The problem is that while they're friends, they still don't trust each other (an instinct that is taken almost as a creed by these small-time criminals). Paranoia infects each of them, though Teach is stricken the most virulently by this suspicion. Hence the store turns into a pressure-cooker, a claustrophobic space from which no one can flee (for fear of missing out on the bounty). It's a great set-up and Mamet knows just how to weight the characters for maximum tension.
Given such a background, American Buffalo is very much an actors movie (which is precisely what attracted Hoffman to the part of Teach). Hoffman really gives his all to make Teach quite loathsome yet prone to human fragility. He cuts a sad figure, isolated from friendship and distrustful. In opposition, Don is open and willing to pass on his knowledge to Bobby. Franz convincingly portrays Don as an everyday figure, happy to capitalise on an opportunity and cloaked in cheap mystique, yet with a fatal flaw. In his desire to be fair, he allows himself to be swayed and convinced far too easily, a weakness that leads to trouble with Bobby. In fact, it's Nelson that provides the big surprise of the film, when he manages to both hold his own with a couple of heavyweight performers and imbue Bobby with ambiguity. Given the effort put into these performances, it's a shame that the characters themselves are so one-note and unengaging.
As will have become obvious, there is very little action to be found here, which inevitably means that the emotional level remains constant (apart from a few crucial instances). However, this (and the stage-bound atmosphere) isn't the weakness which pulls American Buffalo down. The problem is that Michael Corrente knows that he should make some effort to use the potential of cinema, in this adaptation, yet all he manages to do is indicate how hard he's trying. Thus, while the characters get to go outside a few times and wander aimlessly all around the store, there's no reason or motivation behind all of this movement. All it does is prevent the trio from sitting in the same place for the whole film. Hence, the attention is drawn to the film's deficiencies, rather than being deflected from them - the exact opposite of Corrente's purpose. By not taking risks in this adaptation, the chance to make American Buffalo cinematic has been lost, a great disappointment.
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