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Pure Bollocks Issue 22_030
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* F I L M * R E V I E W S *
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From: leeper@mtgzy.att.com (Mark R. Leeper)
Subject: REVIEW: THE CRYING GAME
Keywords: author=Leeper
THE CRYING GAME
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1992 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: An IRA kidnapping leads to a chain of events that
keeps both the characters and the audience
guessing. MONA LISA director Neil Jordan has
equaled or surpassed that film in one of the best
movies of the year. Rating +3 (-4 to +4). See it
before someone spoils it for you.
At an amusement park in Northern Ireland, English soldier Jody (played by
Forest Whitaker) has a good-looking local girl on his arm. They go off to be
alone and suddenly Jody finds there are three men holding guns on him. The IRA
has kidnapped Jody. They will kill him if the IRA prisoner held by the English
is not released. Jody is brought to a hiding place. There he begins the slow
task of picking out one of his captors and trying to make him an ally. He
chooses Fergus (played by Stephen Rea). Jody shows Fergus a picture of his
girlfriend Dil (played by Jaye Davidson). Little do Jody, Fergus, and Dil know
how the one action has bound them together.
THE CRYING GAME is a film for you to go to see ... quickly. Don't read any
more reviews. This is a tough film to review without revealing any of the plot
twists. Word is going to get around soon about this film. See it first. And
don't tell anyone else either.
THE CRYING GAME was written and directed by Neil Jordan, who previously
directed and co-wrote MONA LISA. The similarities will be obvious. Each film
has an intelligent script that lulls characters and audience alike into one set
of assumptions, then turns those assumptions inside out. The two films have
much the same visual style. Jaye Davidson and Cathy Tyson are both sexy and
attractive in much the same way. In both cases the main character is a white
male in love with the beautiful centerpiece of the film across racial lines.
And in fact it seems unimportant that it is across racial lines, though each
comes from a fairly racist culture. This film and MONA LISA each has a
delightful sense of irony which in THE CRYING GAME extends to the music over
the end credit sequence.
The two black stars both have to be surprisingly versatile in this film and
each manages. Forest Whitaker (GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM!; CRIMINAL JUSTICE; and A
RAGE IN HARLEM) is an odd choice to play an English soldier. His accent rings
very true to my admittedly non-British ears. Jaye Davidson's performance will
be the best remembered of the film probably. The part calls for Dil to go
through some major changes and Davidson is always to the mark.
THE CRYING GAME is certainly one of the best films of the year. I rate it
a +3 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
att;mtgzfs3;leeper
leeper@mtgzfs3.att.com
NOTE: The Crying Game is now out on video in Britain.
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