The Devil’s Own

with Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt, Treat Williams
Directed by Alan J. Pakula
by Scott Hefflon

Great acting by Ford and Pitt almost cover up the gaping holes in the plot. Pitt plays a really likable Irish boy who just happens to be an incognito IRA gun-runner. Ford plays a straight Irish cop who, out of goodness or gullibility, takes Pitt into his home. Any political struggle issues are glossed over, thus allowing Pitt to portray a character like something out of a prom photo. Sure, his Da was executed before his very eyes at the supper table, and sure he’s killed people and probably blown up some stuff in his time, but sheesh, cut the guy a bit of slack. Is that the face of a ruthless killer? No, and that’s why the movie freezes in mid-emotion. You like both characters, you can appreciate why each of them is following the course they’re dead-set upon, but you know full well one of ’ems got to die in the end. Pitt twice recited the line, “It’s not an American story. It’s an Irish one,” but this is one of the most watered-down Hollywood plots a movie buff could hope to avoid. You have no one to root for, and can only sigh at the tragedy of it all as the credits roll. But hell, the two gifted actors play their roles so convincingly, so passionately, you almost forget the fact that the plot has more loopholes than the god-awful sweater your drunk, blind Grandmother gives you each Christmas.