User Reviews

"The Crying Game" is a film about understanding. Over the course of two hours and across two countries, characters that come from ostensibly opposite social groups learn to understand each other, in spite of the efforts of those from their own tribe to discourage that from happening.

First there is Fergus and Jody. Fergus is a white volunteer for the I.R.A., Jody a black soldier for the British crown. Fergus is charged with guarding Jody after he is captured, and his sympathy for his prisoner allows them to connect, despite their conflicting roles in the Troubles. Later, Fergus meets Dil. They are, in a number of categorical ways, very different, but they form a bond as well. It isn't easy, and doesn't happen immediately, but their mutual good will makes it possible.

If you thought "The Crying Game" was a film about the Troubles, you'll likely be surprised. It isn't, and it is, though not in the way you might expect. Surprise may be the film's defining characteristic, especially the way the plot turns from act to act. I won't give away any more than I already have; suffice it to say that the script is excellent. Not just in the twists and turns, but also the dialogue, which is brought to life with stellar acting, especially by Stephen Rea, Forest Whitaker, Jaye Davidson, and Jim Broadbent in a bit part. Everything is done well, including the soundtrack - its feature song, performed with moxie by Davidson before a rapt barroom crowd, gives the film its title.

Well-written, acted, and directed, "The Crying Game" remains a relevant and gripping watch almost three decades after it was made.

Neil Jordan's award winning The Crying Game is famous for its big twist halfway through. When the film was released in 1992, the twist was largely kept secret by reviewers and became the stuff of legend; it's now quite well-known of course, although its dramatic impact remains unaffected even if it is neither shocking nor surprising anymore. But there's considerably more to The Crying Game than a single twist. Jordan both wrote and directed the film, and his screenplay is interesting in that it features as the main protagonist an IRA volunteer with whom the audience is expected to sympathise, and indeed does. That in itself was a bold move for a British film made in 1992, although the fact that said volunteer's two IRA colleagues are ruthless killers whose on-screen transgressions are ultimately rewarded with their deaths arguably balances this out. Nevertheless, Jordan's script is brave in tackling the subject. The story concerns Stephen Rea's Fergus, the aforementioned volunteer who becomes complicit in the kidnapping of a British soldier - Forest Whitaker's Jody - and ends up bonding with him, to the alarm of IRA members Maguire (Adrian Dunbar) and Jude (Miranda Richardson). Fergus finds that he is unable to execute Jody, who instead dies ironically when he accidentally runs beneath the wheels of a British Army vehicle, prompting Fergus to head to London in search of Jody's girlfriend Dil. Jordan tries to avoid writing his characters as good or evil, with Fergus spending the whole film questioning himself and changing as a result, and Jody frankly telling Fergus that he joined the British Army not to fight the Irish, but because he simply needed a job. It would be inaccurate to say that The Crying Game is a serious study of the Troubles, which are essentially just used as background, but that in itself makes the film stand out. Once Fergus moves to London however, it becomes about something else entirely, as he falls in love with Jaye Davidson's Dil and is horrified to discover that she has an entirely unexpected penis. Despite Fergus initially reacting by striking Dil before vomiting, he ultimately realises that he still loves her, allowing the film to continue its trajectory as a love story; things go awry however when Maguire and Jude track Fergus down and forcibly recruit him for an IRA operation. Some modern reviewers tend to describe Dil as "trans", interpreting the character as a transgender woman, although Jordan intended Dil to be a transvestite, thus forcing Fergus to deal with the fact that he is in love with a man. Either way, the fact that he ultimately accepts Dil was quite progressive for 1992. More importantly in plot terms, it explores the theme of identity; not Dil's, but rather Fergus's, as he turns his back on his both his IRA past and his previous convictions about his sexuality. A large part of the film's success lies in the performances, especially those of Stephen Rea and Jaye Davidson, who establish a convincing on-screen chemistry (made all the more impressive by the fact that Davidson had never acted before but still gives an utterly convincing, electrifying performance). But Jordan gets great performances out of all the cast members, with Richardson and Dunbar giving naturalistic performances in their roles, and Jim Broadbent getting a lovely supporting role as sage bartender Col. Whitaker's English accent is variable, but his heartfelt performance is crucial to the first half of the film, even if he is a bit fat for a squaddie. The characterisation generally works well, and there's an undercurrent of black humour running through the film, with some witty dialogue especially during the scene at the building site when Dil comes to see Fergus after she gets his apology note. Despite the film concluding with Fergus in prison, it ends on an optimistic note, with Dil visiting and waiting for him to be released. The film's polished visuals are typical of Jordan, who favours dynamic camerawork, with frequent use of tracking shots. The film is shot largely on location, which gives it an added air of realism. In a particularly nice touch, after Fergus finds out the truth about Dil and returns to bar, the camera lingers on the other patrons, reflecting his realisation of what he - and probably most of the audience - missed before. There's a great partly diagetic soundtrack too. The Crying Game made a splash in 1992 because of the shock revelation that Dil had a penis; it's reputation has endured because it doesn't just rely on a twist, but because it is a well directed film with a well written screenplay.

Considering the monumental reputation this film had, it is surprisingly average, a very slow moving plot and with rather clunky and, at times, amateurish direction.

Even with its faults, this could have been a serious film, perhaps a masterpiece, if it had taken the easy route on several occasions. The earliest and most important of these cop outs is the shooting of Jody (Forest Whitaker). After its long (perhaps over long) opening sequence in which Jody is abducted, we feel we are at the start of a movie about moral choices and how, in this case the hero, Fergus, may have to do something he finds morally repugnant for the greater good. Alas, in a scene which completely deflated me, this choice is removed from him, Whittaker instead being run over by a British armoured car. Leaving aside the practical aspect (armoured cars are noisy things, not likely to creep up on you unnoticed), this completely destroys the powerful underlying tension of the film. Had Fergus shot Jody (or at least thought he had), then following his last request, had sought out the girl only to fall in love with her, the film would have asked serious questions about the nature of good and evil. Instead the hero becomes basically an errand boy.

I do wonder if this strange decision was caused by a need to placate the American audience and thus sanitise the IRA to a degree? Certainly some of the next scenes in London seem to represent a cosy tourist view of the city with chirpy barman Jim Broadbent happily giving out cocktails to customers on their second visit (never known a barman to do that) and a clichéd white chav version of Essex man complete with shell suit. This stands out since the film is so careful (rightly) not to create stereotype Irish, black or LGBT characters. But this courtesy is not extended to white English males.

The story meanders for a long time (with many rather pointless shots of a Jody bowling) both before and after the not so shocking reveal which I personally did not find that interesting. The story starts to flag just as Fergus's old IRA buddies show up. This lumbers to the final climax which again is rather amateurishly filmed.

If you want to see a great and beautifully shot film about the IRA and love, ODD MAN OUT by Carol Reed is a far finer work.

I never knew the reveal the first time I watched this film. How lucky was I? A wonderful sensitive love story interlaced with the story of the IRA and the violence that went with it at that time. Everyone now is talking about transgender. We had never heard of it when this bold film was released. An absolute joy and a crackling film. Really underated in my opinion.

THE CRYING GAME / (1992) ***1/2 (out of four) By Blake French:

I admire Neil Jordan for contributing his vastly original ideas to theater screens, as do I admire the Academy Awards, who appropriately rewarded "The Crying Game" with the best original screenplay Oscar in 1992. The film also earned nominations for best picture, director, leading and supporting actors, and editing. Jordan's style of filmmaking feels consistent over the years. "The Crying Game" offers the usual flavor of Jordan, but also incorporates unexpected, ninety degree twists that change the pace of his story altogether.

"The Crying Game" begins in Northern Ireland, where the IRA takes prisoner a British soldier named Jody (Forest Whitaker). Among the team of committed terrorists is the quiet Fergus (Stephen Rea), and the seductive Jude (Miranda Richardson), who guard Jody in an isolated forest shelter. As Fergus continually watches Jody, the two become begin to like one another. Jody knows that his tragic fate nears, therefore, shows Fergus a photograph of his romantic interest, who lives back in London. He asks Fergus to look her up sometime if he ever gets the chance.

The movie takes a ridged, unexpected turn, and the next time we see Fergus, he is living as a construction worker in London under a new name. He finds the soldier's girlfriend working at a beauty salon. Her name is Dil (Jaye Davidson). Fergus gets a haircut, and follows her to a nearby bar, then the next thing we know the two are deeply in love. But Dil has a secret-and so does Fergus. What would Dil think if she knew her new lover was responsible for her late boyfriend's death?

Stephen Rae is the best thing in the movie, interlocking the several separate plots with a concrete narrative. The film takes his point of view, and does so consistently. This is essential, since we learn information as he does-a classic yet extraordinarily effective method of keeping an audience involved. Here, Jordan celebrates a clean story, but reveals information about certain characters that change the entire direction of the story, while keeping the important material in play. That is not easy.

"The Crying Game" is not for everyone-it's a hard, perverse movie with enough content to warrant several R ratings. The sexual content is unexpected and distorted, but stunningly original. Three minutes do not pass before a character casually utters the notorious four-letter word. Even the violence is aggressive and graphic. "The Crying Game" takes no prisoners, so hold on tight and come prepared for the ride.

I think the film could have investigated the relationship between Dil and Jody with more detail. We learn how Jody feels about Dil, but Dil resists sharing her feelings about Jody. Is this done for a purpose? I think so. Neil Jordan is not the kind of director who would leave out massive plot nuggets like this, especially in a movie as deliberate and complex as "The Crying Game." However, Dil feels a little shallow in this area. With a little more emotion and dimension, she could have been even more intriguing. Jaye Davidson does a great job with the character, however, which probably explains why this element of the story has not received many other complaints.

"The Crying Game" was certainly one of the most original movies to hit theaters in 1992, and deserved many of its award nominations and wins. Neil Jordan bravely takes us through controversial material, while at the same time, keeps us focused on the main points of the movie. He keeps the audience in his grasp the whole way through-something all directors should strive to accomplish.

The Crying Game was a sensation when it was first released back in 1992, and looking back on it after all these years it still manages to be an intelligently written and well acted thriller of gender-bending proportions. It famously features one of the most startling plot twists ever conceived for film (which has since become well known; if you're fortunate enough not to know what it is, I will give you the pleasure of discovering it for yourself.). At the time of its release the "plot twist" in question was the main subject of discussion regarding The Crying Game; in retrospect, it is seen not just to be a gimmick, but also an ingenious narrative device--it fits organically with the rest of the plot, both before the revelation and after. Finally, The Crying Game is actually a film that deals with the universal theme of one's need to find acceptance and love in this world (This fact adds new dimensions to its theme song). And because it deals with such a universal theme, this film, like all great films, stands the test of time.

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!

When I was a teenager "The Crying Game" managed to surprise and touch. I watched it again last night and the magic is still there. Neil Jordan just have the touch.

A soldier, Jody (Forest Whitaker) is kidnapped by the terrorist group of IRA. He forms a surprising friendship with one of his kidnappers, Fergus (brilliant Stephen Rea) who has "a killer smile" but has also a heart. Jody adjures Fergus to go and find his loved one if something would happen to him...

Neil Jordan has written an amazing script which makes you laugh and cry. The story is very well structured. It is a story of love as an universal thing. This is the philosophy that is very dear to me. Jordan masquerades brilliantly human reflections through well-written characters like Fergus and Dil (Jaye Davidson). Dil's character gets to say the best punch-lines in addition of Fergus. The metaphor of the scorpion and the frog reflects human nature greatly.

The acting is fantastic. Stephen Rea is always very charming in his subtle way. Forest Whitaker was then just starting but his performance as Jody is touching. Jaye Davidson was a very good finding to play Dil. Miranda Richardson is ice-cold and cool as Jude. Jim Broadbent is funny as the bartender Col.

What a great movie! 10/10!

Nominated in all major categories, this "romantic" crime drama won an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. I watched the film mostly because of Forest Whitaker, but it turned out that his role, although important, is not particularly impressive. Nominee Stephen Rea did not leave a special impression either, but Jaye Davidson really deserved his nomination for a best supporting role, despite this being his film debut. Unfortunately, he had the misfortune to race for the Oscars with veterans, Pacino in "The Scent of a Woman" and Eastwood in "Unforgiven." Honestly, I was most impressed by Jim Broadbent, although he only appears in a few short scenes.

The film is about a member of the IRA, whose unit kidnaps a soldier in order to exchange prisoners. While guarding the abducted soldier, he becomes close to him and after his death goes to find his love and convey the deceased's message to her. He finds her and, of course, romance follows. But the soldier's girlfriend is not what she pretends to be, so our hero and the audience are in for a shock.

I believe that in 1992, the twist of this film might have been a surprise, breaking taboos and shocking the audience. But from today's perspective, when the things that this film shows have long since become part of everyday life, that factor of shock and surprise is lost, and what remains is a very nicely shot and acted, but totally obvious and predictable film. When the agony of boredom of the first forty minutes is added to that, my subjective impression does not reach even six. However, if I take into account the technical quality and the perspective of the time when it was created, I have to give it some slack.

7/10.

N.B. Spoilers within. It's hard to do justice to this modern masterpiece. Let me get this out of the way: "The Twist." The whole issue is a real shame to me; viewers should just stick to the complexities of the story and characters, and not — as the marketers selling the film would soon glom onto — a twist. To think that this would go on to nearly define for the world Neil Jordan's incredible movie! (Along with this, the "I-could-see-it-coming-a-mile-away" attitude...give me a break and just suspend some disbelief.) It doesn't matter now: the poignancy and importance of what Fergus (Stephen Rea) and Dil (Jaye Davidson) experience in this film have given it staying power.

But let's start at the beginning, in Northern Ireland and the IRA, and the kidnapping of British officer Jody (the very solid Forest Whitaker). Here Fergus shows his true colors as a man, befriending Jody — his hated enemy — and proving himself something of a human beyond the sworn duties of his terrorist associations. This first 35 minutes of the film will indelibly imprint on everything that happens thereafter. Fergus's bonding with Jody cannot be helped — because of who the two men are — even as it complicates the emotions between them. The essential story narrated by Jody of the scorpion and the frog serves as background metaphor for the rest of the story: "I can't help it…it's in my nature." Jody's revealing to Fergus of his distant lover Dil (why did he do it? To pre-avenge the terrorist acts happening to him? Out of pure love and sharing?) lights a fuse for the rest of the film, too. IRA activist and lover of Fergus, Jude (Miranda Richardson) proves herself tough in these opening sequences, but is nothing like the Valkyrie she will emerge as in Act III. Jody is unfortunately dispatched early from the picture, but the damage is done: his work on Fergus's psyche has been cemented.

Fergus departs the IRA holdout, now in smithereens, and heads to London, where he becomes Jimmy. He looks up Dil, heavy with the knowledge of how complicit he was in Jody's fate. This, too, takes a constant place in the storyline and must always be kept in mind. (Stephen Rea wears his burdens in the way he talks, walks, breathes: he and Davidson are incredible.) Dil seems to be able to take care of herself just fine (dumping the the dufus Dave, for example), but once she meets Jimmy she falls in love. The feelings are mutual. At the club where Dil performs, bartender Col (a smooth and perfectly knowing Jim Broadbent) mediates the tentative relations between grieving Dil and searching Jimmy/Fergus.

So, the decisive moment: the big reveal. Dil says honestly, "I thought you knew." And later (with the film's many touches of grim humor): "Even while you were throwing up, I could tell you cared." Fergus has another dream about Jody afterward: now Jody is not pitching (i.e. sharing) a cricket ball, but strolling away with a smirk and a genuine sense of revenge. But Fergus needn't worry: one of the great themes in this movie is the way he can't help but stick with Dil, no matter who she has turned out to be. It's all about Fergus's (and Dil's) huge capacity for love, which has become far more universal.

All comes together breathlessly in the final Act. Jude & co. show up in London and re-recruit Fergus to the cause, an important assassination. Now Jude is ruthless and jealously knows of Dil and Fergus. It's incredibly touching when Fergus shears and disguises Dil to save her life: he has put her in harm's way. (One leitmotif in this movie is the music that accompanies the intimate moments between Fergus and Dil — a little sugary but very effective.) When Fergus FINALLY reveals to Dil his relationship with Jody, she is too drugged to fully grasp. But soon she will get it, in spades. The collision between love stories and terrorist plot is unforgettable. Jude is unprepared for the emotional force wielded by the liberated Dil, whose feelings for Jody come to the fore as she has learned of how Jude seduced Jody to his capture in Ireland.

Now that Dil's secret is out (in the real world), the viewer must be fair to the film and *always* keep him/herself in Fergus and Dil's heads. Their points of view are crucial to taking this film on its own grounds. This is one of the most powerful and intelligent films I've ever seen; a thriller combined with multi-layered love stories. Jordan et. al. have created an utterly absorbing and memorable tale.