Face/Off
FACE/OFFÂ (18)
D: John Woo
Douglas/Reuther/WCG/Constellation (David Permut,
Barrie M. Osborne, Terence Chang & Christopher Godsick)
USA 🇺🇸 1997
139 mins
Action/Crime/Thriller/Science Fiction
W: Mike Werb & Michael Colleary
DP: Oliver Wood
Ed: Christian Wagner & Steven Kemper
Mus: John Powell
John Travolta (Sean Archer / Castor Troy), Nicolas
Cage (Castor Troy / Sean Archer), Joan Allen (Eve Archer), Alessandro Nivola (Pollux Troy), Gina Gershon (Sasha Hassler), Dominique Swain (Jamie Archer)
Nicolas Cage & John Travolta literally swap places
(and faces) in this inventive action thriller from Hong Kong director John Woo.
The film opens with obsessive FBI agent Sean Archer
(Travolta) hot on the tracks of criminal mastermind Castor Troy (Cage), who has planted a bomb somewhere in the City and is also responsible for the murder of Archer's young
son.
When the pursuit ends with the criminal in a coma, a
scientific experiment is developed for the lawman to literally wear Castor Troy's face and get information from the imprisoned brother as to where the bomb is hidden.
Meanwhile, the real Castor wakes up and performs a
similar ruse...
Despite being far-fetched and highly unbelievable, the
performances of Nicolas Cage & John Travolta give the film much credibility, especially Cage who can play both the vulnerable good guy as well as the maniacal bad guy with a huge
amount of zeal. The only flaw is minimal; and that is at the end of the film we're supposed to accept John Travolta as the good guy again after watching nearly an entire movie of him
being the bad guy.Â
7/10
