Great Film: Face/Off
Woo's US breakthrough: A triumph!
FACE/OFF
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Panavision)
Sound formats: Dolby Digital / DTS
This magnificent thriller represents director John Woo's triumphant
return to the kind of hyperkinetic, emotionally charged film-making
which made him such a hot property in the first place. Following the
artistic bankruptcy of his first two Hollywood projects, this one is a
marriage of high-octane movie-making and mind-twisting narrative
complexities. It's also one of the few American action movies which
manages to strike a balance between crowd-pleasing set-pieces and
domestic interludes, and renders them equally important. John Travolta
and Nicolas Cage are perfectly matched as hero/villain (and vice
versa!), whilst heavyweight theatre actress Joan Allen provides the
narrative with much of its dramatic backbone in the role of Travolta's
wife (the scene in which she is first confronted with her husband in
Cage's body is almost identical to a similar scene in Terence Fisher's
FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED [1969]).
Technically, the film is a blast, and Woo stages the action highlights
with a visual grace and dexterity that is often breathtaking to behold.
The climactic speedboat battle is probably the finest set-piece of
Woo's career to date, and the script is overflowing with visual and
thematic ironies that underscore the action highlights. In fact, the
production has arguably more dramatic resonance than any other
Hollywood blockbuster of the 1990s, but the dictates of American
commercialism mean that Woo is only able to skate over the emotional
surface of his characters and their moral dilemmas. The two main
protagonists are much too cold and heartless to fully engage the
audience's sympathies, and there's nothing here that matches the
scorching human drama of, say, BULLET IN THE HEAD (1990). But for all
that, FACE/OFF dares to go deeper than your average Hollywood action
picture. It's clever, witty and thrilling, and it manages to accomplish
the difficult task of feeding the brain whilst entertaining the eye.
Cast
- Castor Troy played by Nicolas Cage
- Sean Archer played by John Travolta
- Walton, Prison Guard played by John Carroll Lynch
- Dr. Malcolm Walsh played by Colm Feore
- Tito Biondi played by Robert Wisdom
- Dr. Holllis Miller played by Cch Pounder
- Dr. Eve Archer played by Joan Allen
