A reluctant agent of the Irish Republican Army discovers that some people just aren't who you expect them to be. After being kidnapped by IRA terrorists, he befriends one of his captors, who is drawn into the soldier's world.
Seeing the film twice reveals two completely different viewer perspectives -- a kind of "before and after" syndrome -- and like any good film The Crying Game grows richer as it sinks into your thoughts.
In a style of agitated naturalism, Jordan examines poignant matters of life and death, sex and friendship, duty and loyalty, freedom and bondage, manhood and womanhood and all the ambiguous areas in between.
The movie is at its stunning best as it comes to terms with the impact of its own most devious surprise... Still, at a certain point, it reverts to formula.
Its components are built upon deception and forgiveness, misconnections and misunderstandings, sexual jealousy and moral ambivalence, trust and loyalty, desperation and loneliness. It is also, not incidentally, a crackling good movie.
Here's a movie that is difficult to outguess, difficult even to describe. The Crying Game belongs to no particular genre, though it is an absorbing thriller and a memorably offbeat love story.
Suspenseful and emotionally complex, skillfully mixing politics with affairs of the heart, The Crying Game is something unexpected, a challenging new way to tell a very old story.
