Here is a really deep & touching movie. Dil sings (& moves her hands about like a classical Indian dancer rather distractingly) "I know all about the crying game" we know that she knows. It drips out of her voice, it rolls down her cheek, it stares out of her eyes. She knows she has lost her best chance in life - the only man to love her was killed in Ireland. Yet when she meets Stephen Rea the man who, unknown to her, was responsible for her lover's (Forest Whitaker) death in Ireland, hope again rises in her. She will hold on to Rea for her life for in him she sees a 'gentleman' very like Whitaker. But Rea is not the only one with a secret. Dil has one too & that gives the movie the tension, irony & ultimately the tragedy which sets it apart from any IRA/ star-crossed lovers/ hostage drama that I have seen. When Dil tells Rea that she knows he is lying but all the same she likes to hear him say that he loves her it moves everyone in the audience.
The performances (Adrian Dunbar as the ruthless leader, Miranda Richardson as the cold, teasing assassin & Jim Broadbent as the bartender, not to mention Rea, Dil & Whitaker) are brilliant, the atmosphere is electric & the score is haunting. The only points that rankle are Whitaker's dream-sequence appearances looking like a model in a detergent ad & Dil's suddenly-acquired shooting skills which brings the movie to its horrific climax.
A brilliant movie with layers & layers of depth, & comparable to Jordan's earlier 'Mona Lisa'. That is saying a lot because Mona Lisa walks into my Top 50 movies without even knocking!
The performances (Adrian Dunbar as the ruthless leader, Miranda Richardson as the cold, teasing assassin & Jim Broadbent as the bartender, not to mention Rea, Dil & Whitaker) are brilliant, the atmosphere is electric & the score is haunting. The only points that rankle are Whitaker's dream-sequence appearances looking like a model in a detergent ad & Dil's suddenly-acquired shooting skills which brings the movie to its horrific climax.
A brilliant movie with layers & layers of depth, & comparable to Jordan's earlier 'Mona Lisa'. That is saying a lot because Mona Lisa walks into my Top 50 movies without even knocking!