The Frame

An IRA cell captures Forest Whitaker, eventually ordering Stephen Rea, one of their number, to kill him. However, Rea has been talking with him while guarding him and finds it difficult to shoot him. When he’s killed anyway, Rea leaves his group to go find Whitaker’s girlfriend. Instead of telling her who he is, though, he falls in love with her. There’s another twist, which I won’t reveal, but if you know anything about this film, you probably know it already. It’s pretty much all anyone ever talks about with regards to The Crying Game, even though it’s really sort of a secondary thing. Heh. I didn’t even know it was an IRA film until I started watching it, though with Neil Jordan directing, I should’ve had an inkling. Jordan is a really good director, able to take strange plots and turn them into something more. Ultimately The Crying Game isn’t quite as successful as I’d hoped. It’s a quite good crime/terrorist thriller, but the, uh, unrevealed plot twist actually seemed unnecessary and sensationalist to me–though I suppose it does fit in with Jordan’s interest in identity, a fascination that I, oddly enough, felt was better realized in Breakfast on Pluto.
Well Above Average