Face/Off Movie Review

Face/Off (1997)

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Written by: Mike Werb & Michael Colleary
Directed by: John Woo
Starring: John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen, Gina Gershon, Dominique Swain, Robert Wisdom, Nick Cassavetes, John Carroll Lynch, CCH Pounder
Rated: R
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Plot
To foil a terrorist plot, an FBI agent undergoes facial transplant surgery to assume the identity of the criminal mastermind who murdered his only son, but the criminal wakes up prematurely and seeks revenge.

Verdict
This is a movie ridiculous in almost all the right ways. While the concept is absurd, it works as Travolta and Cage get to play each other playing their character. While the action is certainly over the top, as is a lot of this movie, it never fails to entertain with boat fights, explosions, and many, many shootouts. This is a movie that could easily become silly, but Woo manages to keep you involved throughout while Travolta and Cage captivate you with their performances.
Watch It.

Review
I loved this movie back when. Obviously it takes a fair amount of effort to suspend your disbelief and not question any of the 'science.' With that said, Travolta and Cage do such a great job of playing both hero and villain. They play each other and that makes the movie, and each scene, so much fun as it's an actor, playing another actor, playing a character.

John Travolta plays Sean Archer

This sets up the antagonistic relationship between Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) and Sean Archer (John Travolta) in the very first scene. Troy is a sociopath and Archer works for the FBI. Cage does such a great job of over-acting which works since Troy is evil to such a ridiculous degree. Few actors could make this character work. The movie and concept is over the top. This procedure is wild, but this sells it just well enough to be believable. We see just enough to make you a bit squeamish without showing too much.

Nicolas Cage plays Castor Troy

Taking the face of your enemy is a trip. We've seen enough of Troy and Archer to get a sense of how they act so that when they swap faces we get how they're playing it and when they stray from being in character. From this point on, each scene has an extra layer. It's Nicolas Cage playing John Travolta playing Castor Troy just like it's John Travolta playing Nicolas Cage playing Sean Archer.

This action is highly stylized with people jumping over things and flying through the air. Sparks fly in nearly every fight scene from all surfaces. The first fight is Archer as Troy trying to establish his presence in prison. He doesn't want to be there, doesn't want to fight, but he doesn't have a choice if he's going to make people believe he's Troy. Troy is crazy so Archer has to act like him.

Nicolas Cage, John Travolta play Sean Archer as Castor Troy, Castor Troy as Sean Archer

While Archer as Troy hopes to get out of this prison he's greeted by Troy as Archer who informs him of how no one knows about the face swap procedure. Troy plans to take over Archer's life and leave him in jail. It's heavy. Travolta acting like Cage's character is nearly as much fun as Cage's over the top portrayal of Troy. Of all the craziness, the oddest element may be Archer's tendency to rub his hand over his family's faces, children and adults alike. The movie uses this as a tell to indicate which is the real Archer.

The sheer ridiculousness of the concept makes this so much fun. "I'm going to take his face off!" They infiltrate each other's lives. Archer doesn't like being Troy, but Troy has a lot of fun playing in Archer's life. Archer as Troy is just trying to survive. Troy as Archer sees a chance to eliminate his competition as he's now highly positioned in the FBI.

With all the craziness, the script does a great job with callbacks. While this movie could try to coast on outlandish concept alone, the story tries to tie these moments together to make a cohesive narrative and make scenes mean just a bit more. While it helps, it's Travolta and Cage that completely carry this movie with their performances.