Face/Off – Review

Face/Off

With John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen, Gina Gershon, Nick Cassavetes
Written by Mike Werb & Michael Colleary
Directed by John Woo (Paramount)
by Sam Ames

Face/Off starts out good and does not give up or slow down or do any of the other things action movies do after the first twenty minutes. It gets you from the start with good acting, and keeps you riveted with an original storyline and plenty of action. Nicolas Cage and John Travolta handle a complicated acting job superbly while veteran director John Woo claims his place as Hollywood’s hottest action director.

Cage plays psychotic terrorist Castor Troy who accidentally kills the young son of FBI agent Sean Archer ( Travolta) during an assassination attempt on the agent’s life. This first scene is a flashback, shot in faded colors and slow motion that intensifies the father’s loss, and explains how Archer becomes the hollow hard-driving man whose only reason for living is to bust Castor Troy. He apprehends Troy in the beginning of the movie after a spectacular chase scene that leaves the criminal in a coma. But his long quest is far from over. Troy and his brother, played by Alessandro Nivola, have already set a bomb that threatens to blow up all of Los Angeles. The only way to find out the bomb’s location is through the sociopathic brother, who will not speak with anyone but Troy. Archer agrees to undergo an operation that alters his body and substitutes his face with Troy’s. He then enters prison to extract information from the brother. Things get complicated when faceless Troy awakens from his coma. He forces the surgical team to give him Archer’s face, which is being stored in a liquid solution, and destroys the people and records that could reveal Archer’s identity. So now as far as the whole world is concerned, Troy is Archer and Archer is Troy.

Travolta easily slides from cop to terrorist; he imitates Cage’s cocky strut, haughty voice, and cavalier mannerisms, and does not hide the fact that he’s having a great time doing it. Cage has the harder job. The cop is far less colorful than the criminal, because – hey, let’s face it – villains can be bad in more interesting ways than heroes can be good. But Cage comes through and manages to capture the horror of a man who has changed identities.

The face switch lifts the movie beyond regular good guy/bad guy convention. Archer must embrace the persona that murdered his son in order to survive in prison. The film brings out more of the comedy of the situation than the seriousness. Troy must act like a well- behaved, domesticated member of society. This is funny, especially when he can’t do it. He gropes at secretaries, encourages Archer’s teenage daughter to smoke and even beats the hell out of one of her overly forward dates.

The film has the signature of acclaimed action director John Woo all over it. Woo directed dozens of films out of Hong Kong before migrating to Hollywood for Hard Target and Broken Arrow. The Face/Off script gives him the best chance yet to bring his distinctive style to Hollywood. In past films, he became expert at cramming more gun battles and high tension standoffs than seemed possible into ninety minutes of film. The grand finale of Hardboiled is a crazy thirty-minute firefight of non-stop action and a skyrocketing body count that is more World War III than movie. The Killer and A Better Tomorrow also boast similar endings. He gets away with such gratuitous violence by sincerely developing the characters and giving them real motives. In The Killer, Chow-Yun Fat plays a hit man with a conscience who does one last hit to pay for an operation that will restore the eyesight of a woman he accidentally blinded during a past hit. The cop in Hardboiled, also played by Fat, single-handedly takes down a crime syndicate to avenge his partner’s death. Woo also brings issues of loyalty and family into his movies. An undercover informant in Hardboiled must choose between his crime boss mentor and a ruthless upstart who tempts him with money. In A Better Tomorrow, an ex-con must walk the straight path even though his brother wants him busted and still holds him responsible for the death of their father.

In Face/Off, Woo adds more of this personal touch, and this produces a better movie. Part of the horror Archer experiences is over what he has put his family through. His grief over his dead son overrides his loyalty to his living loved ones and dominates his drive to bring the killer to justice. He only realizes his failure as a father and husband when his actions allow a killer to live among his family. Talk about bringing your work home with you. Joan Allen plays Archer’s wife,who convincingly captures the conflict and mixed emotions of a wife who is not sure who to believe anymore when her part-time husband returns as Castor Troy.

Woo’s flair for action makes the film more intense. His Hong Kong films have little besides gun battles, maybe a car chase or two, but nothing extraordinary. This time, a bigger budget has enabled him to masterfully direct chase scenes involving boats, cars, helicopters, and jets, along with marathon firefights that take place in prisons, airports, and churches. Those seeking action will not be disappointed.

His editing style, perfected from two decades in action film, injects realism into the movie. Woo combines slow motion and real time footage to heighten the tension of combat scenes. He arranges his shots so the audience never knows exactly what is going on. This makes the violence more unpredictable and is a welcome departure from over-choreographed action films where you know who gets shot before the first bullet is fired.

So if you are looking for a place to invest your $7.50, go no further.Face/Off is an exceptional film, and hopefully, John Woo will return with another great cast and script, and continue to raise the standard by which action films are made.