Face / Off
Sometimes in the world of cinema, a nearly absurd, unbelievable premise can be overcome through the sheer force of actual, literal execution, making a great movie out of something that shouldn’t be and becoming an unlikely classic of its genre in the process. Even then, the multitudes of people who dismiss and / or outright condemn that movie solely because of said premise choose to overlook or outright ignore the fact that the movie itself is so intriguing and entertaining on so many other levels that anything that seems ridiculous about the hows and whys of what moves the plot along are simply missing out for their own good. As was the case with this 1997 release directed by John Woo, a guy who had long established himself as THE reigning king of Hong Kong action cinema before Hollywood beckoned and gave him the budgets (and big name stars) to really work his magic with. The premise as stated involves a dedicated cop and master criminal who literally switch faces and identities in order to exact their own revenge on each other utilizing a top secret medical technology that’s utterly impossible in this day and age even though the story takes place in modern times, which is interesting since the original script was said to take place far into the future and was reportedly a lot more cheesy before the decision was made to set it in the here and now and allow audiences to be more able to relate to the characters and situations at hand. A smart move to be sure, and even smarter casting makes it work when you have two top notch, big name, major stars taking on the task of playing the hero and villain, then through the concept, literally switching places so that the “good” actor becomes evil and vice versa. To that end, we get John Travolta and Nicholas Cage, of which neither of the two are exactly lightweights, but while Travolta is more widely considered to be an enduring screen legend, it was actually Cage who was the hotter of the two stars at that particular time, having just come off of a Best Actor Oscar win and with this film completing a trilogy of what remains to this day films that are still considered undisputed action classics which also include The Rock and Con Air. Travolta starts the movie as the good guy and Cage as the bad, with the hero being FBI anti-terrorism agent Sean Archer, looking to avenge the tragic murder of his five year old son at Cage’s hands, as shown in a stunningly idyllic opening scene that seems almost dreamlike in its composition. Travolta in the opening half hour of the film manages to do one thing extremely right, and that is to project the overall inherent goodness of the Archer character for us, so much so that we anxiously await his return in that mode as we head towards the finale. As for Cage, he gets the role of international terrorist for hire Castor Troy, and Cage plays him with an insane veneer that would actually mar a number of his later performances, but he goes to it here with a zip that’s suitable for a character that truly ENJOYS being evil and is not afraid to show it, acting crazy even when in the line of fire. As it turns out, these two wind up having their “final showdown” early in the movie, with Cage being so severely injured that he lapses into a deep coma, but there’s a problem: Travolta learns that Cage has planted a bomb somewhere in LA and with the main man out of commission and Travolta unable to get the information out of either his associates or his paranoid sociopathic brother, accepts an offer from Special Ops to undergo a radical procedure to have the comatose face of Cage transplanted onto his own so that he could now walk into the top secret prison facility undercover and get close to his brother to find out the location of the bomb. That part goes through easily enough, but then a snag develops when Troy awakens from his coma, has his henchmen bring the doctors and everyone who knows the truth about his archnemesis to the clinic, then has the same procedure done with Travolta’s face being plastered onto his before torching the place and murdering everyone who knows the truth. Troy then assumes his enemy’s position as the biggest anti-terrorism law enforcement agent in the country and that’s when things get interesting. Archer in the prison with his vital information means nothing as Troy releases his brother, cuts a “deal” with him, then waltzes into where the bomb is and defuses it himself, having firsthand knowledge since he placed it there originally. Then he sets out to not only control the United States intelligence infrastructure, but to wipe out his competition while his rival sits in the secret dungeon. But miraculously Archer escapes, returns to LA, and the stakes increase tenfold. While there have been plenty of better action movies, this was the one where Woo’s personal esthetic came to the forefront more than in any other of his Hollywood based pictures, with a style that can make violence and shootouts seem almost poetic by nature with the use of editing, slow motion, balletic movements of the participants, and absolutely beautifully framed images of carnage. More importantly, the electricity pulsing through every frame is off the charts kinetic, and the pacing and high tension dramatic scenes seem to resonate off the screen as well along with the so called “comic book” story elements (like the manner in which Cage plays Troy). The supporting roles include Oscar darling Joan Allen as Travolta’s estranged wife who is unaware that when her husband comes home one day that it is actually the man he and she despise the most; Alessandro Nivola as Cage’s eternally weird brother with childlike tendencies despite being a terrorist; The ultra hot Gina Gershon as Cage’s old flame still willing to stand and fight alongside the face of the man she loves; Dominque Swain (who deserved to have a Natalie Portman type of career after being a hot teen star) as Travolta’s troubled daughter who faces a new kind of threat when Troy takes on her dad’s identity with very likely unsavory intentions; Nick Cassavetes (Hollywood royalty who resorted to character roles due to his imposing build) as Troy’s old running buddy and brother to Gershon who welcomes his old fugitive friend back warmly with open arms despite the immense risk; and even Thomas Jane shows up briefly as a bespectacled prisoner in the top secret facility. The wonderful contrast opened up by the screenplay is the idea that when Archer (as Troy) puts himself among Troy’s friends, he finds that even they have a set of values and a common decency amongst them to protect their own, including their children from any kind of harm, which makes the increasing conflicts and alliances more and more fascinating as time goes on, leading to the poetic justice ending that seals the deal perfectly. John Woo may not have a lot of action classics under his belt since he arrived in Hollywood, but he has this masterpiece to speak for, and words like far fetched should be shunted aside so we can enjoy the ride…
10/10