
                   ----------------------------------------

                   *  F  I  L  M  *  R  E  V  I  E  W  S  *

                   ----------------------------------------


From:       leeper@mtgzy.att.com (Mark R. Leeper)
Subject:    REVIEW: THE CRYING GAME
Keywords:   author=Leeper

                                THE CRYING GAME

                        A film review by Mark R. Leeper
                         Copyright 1992 Mark R. Leeper

    Capsule review: An IRA kidnapping leads to a chain of events that
                    keeps  both  the  characters   and  the  audience
                    guessing.  MONA  LISA  director  Neil  Jordan has
                    equaled or surpassed that film in one of the best
                    movies of the year. Rating +3 (-4 to +4).  See it
                    before someone spoils it for you.

    At an amusement park in Northern  Ireland,  English soldier Jody (played by
Forest Whitaker) has a good-looking local girl  on  his arm.  They go off to be
alone and suddenly Jody finds there are three  men holding guns on him. The IRA
has kidnapped Jody.  They will kill him if the IRA prisoner held by the English
is not released.  Jody is brought to a  hiding place.  There he begins the slow
task of picking out one of  his  captors  and  trying  to make him an ally.  He
chooses Fergus (played by Stephen  Rea).   Jody  shows  Fergus a picture of his
girlfriend Dil (played by Jaye Davidson).  Little do Jody, Fergus, and Dil know
how the one action has bound them together.

    THE CRYING GAME is a film for you to go to see ... quickly.  Don't read any
more reviews.  This is a tough film to review without revealing any of the plot
twists.  Word is going to get around soon  about this film.  See it first.  And
don't tell anyone else either.

    THE CRYING GAME was written  and  directed  by  Neil Jordan, who previously
directed and co-wrote MONA LISA.  The  similarities will be obvious.  Each film
has an intelligent script that lulls characters and audience alike into one set
of assumptions, then turns those  assumptions  inside  out.  The two films have
much the same visual style.  Jaye  Davidson  and  Cathy Tyson are both sexy and
attractive in much the same way.  In  both  cases the main character is a white
male in love with the beautiful  centerpiece  of  the film across racial lines.
And in fact it seems unimportant  that  it  is across racial lines, though each
comes from a fairly  racist  culture.   This  film  and  MONA  LISA  each has a
delightful sense of irony which in  THE  CRYING  GAME extends to the music over
the end credit sequence.

    The two black stars both have to be surprisingly versatile in this film and
each manages.  Forest Whitaker (GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM!; CRIMINAL JUSTICE; and A
RAGE IN HARLEM) is an odd choice  to  play an English soldier. His accent rings
very true to my admittedly non-British  ears.  Jaye Davidson's performance will
be the best remembered of  the  film  probably.  The  part  calls for Dil to go
through some major changes and Davidson is always to the mark.

    THE CRYING GAME is certainly one of the  best films of the year.  I rate it
a +3 on the -4 to +4 scale.


                                Mark R. Leeper
                              att;mtgzfs3;leeper
                            leeper@mtgzfs3.att.com


NOTE: The Crying Game is now out on video in Britain.

                   ----------------------------------------

