A clever trade-off of action and emotion that still feels relevant

Rating: 8/10 (9 September 2007)

Sean Archer (John Travolta), a senior FBI agent, has been tracking Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) for years. Besides wanting to take him down for his terrorist crimes, Archer also has revenge in mind, as Troy accidentally murdered Archer's son years earlier in a botched assassination attempt. But shortly after finally capturing him in a comatose, he learns of a bomb that has been planted within Los Angeles, and only Troy knows where it is. So, with the aid of brilliant science, Archer trades faces with Troy, and goes undercover in prison to try and find out how to stop the bomb from Troy's brother Pollux (Alessandro Nivola). But things take a turn for the worst when Troy shows up with Archer's face.
Yes, this synopsis may sound a bit convoluted and murky, but the film makes it work at almost every hairpin turn. In fact, that is half the fun of the film. I watched this film when I was a kid, and loved it. And nothing has changed in ten years. Through every suspense filled moment, the film packs on one hell of a wallop, both through its clever trade-off of action and emotion. Yes, it has its moments where things happen that clearly never can, but the rest of this dead serious romp is very much based heavily in the real (and the predicted real). Indeed some of the thrilling stunts are right in tune with the usual crap spoon fed by Michael Bay (who actually directed Cage in his best work to date, The Rock, just before this film), but the majority of the actions that these characters do are based quite blatantly in the real world.
The stunts and action set pieces are all brilliantly constructed from head to toe, and never once does anything look fake. It has all the trimmings of a John Woo film, from the pigeons to the double handed gun fights to the grand explosions to even the elevated use of slow motion, and never once does it take itself for granted. Right from the scene in the chase/shootout scene in the airport hanger that begins right after the credits conclude, you know you are in the hands of a master action storyteller. Woo takes great pride in how he envisions and creates his sequences, and every single scene action-packed or not, has that aura about it. Unlike the aforementioned Bay or even The Wachowskis, every detail looks perfectly thought out and even more perfectly directed. It is hard to spot blemishes in everything that is going on, and even harder to pick out the fabricated from the realistic (considering how little an amount of CGI is actually used in the film).
But the real drive of the film is in the acting, and it is fairly well done across the board. Both Travolta and Cage are clearly above the material, but they do a wonderful job conveying most of the absolutely devastating emotions shown throughout the film. Both play off of each other well, and both do an even better job aping the other's performance. While I did really enjoy Cage here (more so as the good guy), it is Travolta who gives the better performance. He just brings such an evil zest to the Troy role that we never really get to see as an audience. Yeah, he was over-the-top in Broken Arrow, fabulously poignant in Pulp Fiction, and at one of his all-time highs in Swordfish, but his deliciously evil turn here is what really shows off his talent and range. The otherwise all around good guy playing someone who is the quintessentially evil bad-ass. His every delivery just has that solid, methodical brilliance to it, and seeing it again was a real treat.
Supporting turns from Joan Allen as Archer's wife, Dominique Swain as Archer's daughter, Gina Gershon as Troy's moll and Nivola are all particularly well acted. Yes, they are overshadowed by the two main characters, but they put in some fine performances all on their own.
What kills the movie a little are some of the blatant plot-holes, inconsistencies and some really goofy dialogue (that stupid hand thing still bothers me too). I understand some of the movie should be tongue-in-cheek, but some of the scenes just got a little out of control. Just the sheer idea of swapping faces is a frightening idea all in itself. But then why does no one quite grasp the changes that these characters are clearly going through? Why do we not even know more than just a slight backstory on neither Archer nor Troy? Questions like these bothered me ever since I first saw the film so many years ago, and they only continue to echo. I understand the whole movie hinges on the idea of revenge for Archer's son's murder and everyone not knowing the truth except Archer and Troy, but some of their actions are just far too bizarre for someone to not notice. This may be a problem having changed the script so vastly from its original science-fiction form, but it just never quite jives as easy as it should.
I must admit, even though it is quite obviously an action film, Face/Off will always so much more than that. The undertones that run throughout the film are so heavily dramatic, that if you take away the action scenes, you still could have a taut and calculating character drama. The painstaking work done by Woo and his crew to make this film so much more original than it could have been is crystal clear throughout the film. Its sheer predictions of a dystopic face swapping ability is enough to make the film valid and not dated in the current year, but at the same time, shows just how imaginative movies used to be. Problems or not, I can only hope that Face/Off continues to stand the test of time.
8/10.
(Portions of this review originally appeared on http://www.dvdfanatic.com).