Douglas is the right actor for the role. He can play smart, he can play cold, and he can play angry. He is also subtle enough that he never arrives at an emotional plateau before the film does, and never overplays the process of his inner change. Indeed, one of the refreshing things about the film is that it stays true to its paranoid vision right up until what seems like the very end--and then beyond it, so that by the time the real ending arrives, it's not the payoff and release as much as a final macabre twist of the knife.
Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from until his death in In , he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. Michael Douglas as Nicholas Van Orton. Sean Penn as Conrad Van Orton. Peter Donat as Sam Sutherland. Carroll Baker as Ilsa. James Rebhorn as Jim Feingold. Armin Mueller-Stahl as Anson Baer. Deborah Kara Unger as Christine. Reviews The Game. Roger Ebert September 19, Now streaming on:.
Powered by JustWatch. The academy has an annual compulsion to give an Oscar to a British nominee whenever it can find one, and this year, Emma Thompson will benefit from that tradition. She was the heart at the center of "Howards End," a film of great depth and civilization, and both she and the film represent the "Masterpiece Theatre" syndrome in which Hollywood honors culture as an excuse for producing so little of it itself. Susan Sarandon is probably the runner-up in this category, for her angry, determined mother in " Lorenzo's Oil.
The other nominees, who have almost no chance, are legendary French actress Catherine Deneuve , for " Indochine ," an epic about French colonial years; Mary McDonnell , for " Passion Fish ," as a paralyzed and embittered actress, and Michelle Pfeiffer , as a Dallas woman who goes on a cross-country odyssey to attend John F.
Kennedy's funeral in " Love Field. In this closely watched category, there is a close race between a Hollywood veteran and an exotic newcomer. Gene Hackman is the favorite for his role as the sadistic sheriff in "Unforgiven," but Jaye Davidson is a definite possibility for "The Crying Game," especially if voters cannot still the impish impulse to shake up the awards a little with an outsider.
Davidson's performance in "The Crying Game" is indeed effective and engaging - it's amazing work from a first-time actor - and he also may benefit from the academy's desire to give at least one major award to the sleeper of the year. Still, I think Hackman will win. He has been around since " Bonnie and Clyde " in He has ranged from good to inspired in one fine film after another.
He is personally popular. And there will likely be the "Unforgiven" factor. Everything adds up. Saturday Night. That's enough for now. Pacino will get all of his votes in the best actor category. Paymer was very good, but his film was a bomb, and he's been upstaged by Davidson in the newcomer category. In this category, I think the only American nominee will win. Marisa Tomei, Joe Pesci's wisecracking girlfriend in "My Cousin Vinny," prevented the category from being populated entirely by foreigners.
The other nominees are Judy Davis , an Australian, for " Husbands and Wives ," and three British actresses: Joan Plowright , as an elderly woman who goes on an Italian holiday in "Enchanted April"; Vanessa Redgrave , winning her sixth nomination, as the first wife of the hypocritical banker in "Howards End," and Miranda Richardson , as the enraged wife of Jeremy Irons in " Damage.
Tomei will win, I think, because people remember her very funny performance and also like her in the current "Untamed Heart. Of the others, the widely respected Judy Davis probably has the best chance, unless there is a backlash against any Woody Allen picture.
And then, the next time we see Fergus, he is in London, under a new name, working as a laborer on a construction site. He still has the snapshot. He goes looking for the soldier's girlfriend, and finds her working in a beauty salon. On an impulse he goes in to get his hair cut. After work, she goes to a nearby pub. They begin a conversation, using the bartender as a middleman in one of the many unexpected narrative touches in an entirely original film.
The girlfriend, named Dil Jaye Davidson is an original, too, with a delightful dry way of understating herself, of keeping her cool while seeming amused at the same time. She reminds us there is such a thing as verbal style; too much modern movie dialogue is flat and plot-driven.
Fergus and Dil are attracted to one another. But there are fundamental unacknowledged deceptions between them - not least, the fact that Fergus is the man who shares responsibility for the boyfriend's death. The most fascinating passages in the film follow the development of their relationship, which becomes an emotional fencing match as it survives one revelation after another.
Then the IRA tracks Fergus to his hiding place and has another job for him to do. The peculiar thing about "The Crying Game" is that this story outline, while true, hardly suggests the actual content of this film. It is much more complex and labyrinthine - both in terms of simple plotting, and in terms of the matters of the heart that follow. Most movie love stories begin as a given; we know from the first frame who will be together in the last.
Here, there are times when we know nothing, and times when we know less than that. Yet because we care about the characters - we can't help liking them - it's surprising, how the love story transcends all of the plot turns to take on an importance of its own.
One of the keys to the movie is the casting. The ironic, vulnerable Dil is a real original, a person who arrives on the screen not as a writer's notion but with a convincing, engaging personality. Stephen Rea, as Fergus, is an essentially good person who has gotten involved in a life that requires him to be violent and ruthless.
He doesn't have much heart for it; maybe Dil has deeper resources.
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