John Woo’s best American movie
Synopsis: FBI Special Agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) and his team are hunting crime-lord-cum-terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage), who has planted a time bomb set to release toxic fumes into the streets of Los Angeles. During a clash with Archer, Troy was injured and fell into coma. Troy’s brother Pollux (Alessandro Nivola) is the only other person who knows the location of the bomb but refuses to cooperate with the authorities, and trusts no one except his own brother. Left with no other alternatives, Archer agreed to partake in a secret government project that will allow him to assume Castor Troy’s identity and appearance, by surgically transplanting Troy’s face onto Archer’s. Posing as Troy, Archer attempts to coax the location of the bomb out of Pollux. But unbeknownst to Archer, Troy wakes from his coma, and sees Archer’s mug floating in a beaker in the adjacent room…
Face/Off can be science fiction, crime, noir or even comedy, depending on how you look at it. But one thing’s unmistakable; this is a John Woo movie, which means it’s an over-the-top, testosterone-filled melodrama, with two men going at each other’s throats while leaving a trail of bullet-ridden destruction behind them. Directed by legendary Hong Kong director, whose name has become synonymous with his filmmaking M.O., his directorial fingerprint is in every single frame: the excessive use of slow-motion photography, highly-dexterous gunfights, Mexican stand-offs, and doves. Lots of doves.
There is also another common thread in most of Woo’s movies –ironic and absurd situations, whether it’s A Better Tomorrow’s cop learning honour and brotherhood from a ferocious mobster, or The Killer’s killer who tries to correct one past mistake but ends up killing more people in the process. In Face/Off, at one point the bad guy Troy takes Archer’s face and identity, and of course being the bad guy he uses the situation to his nefarious advantage (e.g. banging the hero’s wife). But at the same time Troy is also improving the lives of the people in Archer’s life with his reckless but charming personality, though he may not realise it. He brings more humour and life to Archer’s dreary workplace and home, dulled by years of Archer’s grieving over his dead son, who was (ta-da-dum!) killed by Troy! Meanwhile, Archer navigates Troy’s social circle like a sheep in wolf’s clothing, acting tough and snorting coke like how Troy would do it, but barely scrapes through with the charade. At one point it seems like he’s about to exposed himself, when a psychotropic substance starts to loosen up his tongue. It’s one of the few sequences that are darkly funny and thrilling in the same instance.
It goes without saying that the movie’s histrionics were also punched to the max, with Nicolas Cage bearing the brunt of the work, but also stealing most of the scenes. Both main characters are at their defining moment when Cage is playing them. Travolta played Troy a little too gleeful to my liking, but it was meant to be a fun role, and Travolta was clearly relishing in it.
Sadly, the movie devolved into a generic actioner at the finale. Explosions after explosions go off, and objects and bodies are hurled across the screen to delirious, orgasmic effect, ending with a furious cry from the protagonist, at last finding some release and relief. And no, I’m not trying to describe a sex scene here. The biggest letdown is that there aren’t many memorable or imaginative action sequences like the ones you see in Hard Target or Mission: Impossible 2. We still get one scene with Cage flying through the air with a gun in each hand, a number of too-close-for-comfort gun battle between Archer and Troy, and that mid-movie shootout with Somewhere Over The Rainbow playing over the ricochets that was an amazing, sublime moment. Everything else is standard hide-and-shoot.
This is still easily one of Woo’s best, though, and it’s his best, most luxurious Hollywood-based movie to date. It isn’t on par with A Better Tomorrow, but it’s definitely better than Once A Thief (movie, not TV), much less depressing than The Killer, and almost as memorable as Hard-Boiled. I just hope this won’t be the last great movie from the master. I’m crossing my fingers for the upcoming The Battle of Red Cliff (2008). - BMF
For the record:
A Better Tomorrow > Hard-Boiled > Bullet in the Head > Face/Off > The Killer > A Better Tomorrow Part 2 > Hard Target > Broken Arrow > Mission: Impossible 2 > Heroes Shed No Tears > Windtalkers > Plain Jane to the Rescue
Number of times seen during Face/Off's theatrical run = 4
Directed by John Woo (Hard-Boiled, The Killer) and screenplay by Mike Werb and Michael Colleary (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider). Stars Nicolas Cage, John Travolta, Joan Allen, Gina Gershon, Nick Cassavetes, Alessandro Nivola and Dominique Swain. |
