Face/Off

Body swapping stories are an old trick in films and are often used comedically.  In the 1980s there were switching parent and child bodies (Freaky Friday, Vice Versa, Like Father Like Son).  Parent Trap took a pair of twins and had them switch places but Face/Off  does something new with the concept by taking a hero and a villain and having them switch faces and forcing them to adapt to each other's lives while trying to stop each other.

Spoilers for Face/Off below

Director John Woo was famous for his action heavy and Catholic themed Hong Kong films like The Killer and Hard Boiled.  Woo's films explored the effect on violence on its heroes and victims and often mirrored the hero and villains in some way. Woo's characters often wear black suits, slide around a lot, hold two guns, and have Mexican standoffs, sometimes in slow motion. The Killer in particular, is a powerful film in which the title character, played by Chow Yun Fat, tries to raise money for an operation for a corneal transplant for a young woman who was accidentally blinded by one his jobs Like Face/Off the climax contains a shootout in a church.  

Woo came to the U.S. and I first heard of him when I saw the film Hard Target, a B action film that has a lot of Woo signature moves and makes good use star Jeanne Claude Van Damm's physique.  I first read of this film after the opening of Broken Arrow, director John Woo's first film with John Travolta. Broken Arrow was a stylistic, if forgettable film, that pitted Travolta as the villain against Christian Slater as a young pilot in the Southwest.  Broken Arrow opened well enough that Woo would get to make this film.  I wondered how the logistics work of a hero and villain switching faces would work.

Face/Off works as well as it does because of the casting and one of the producers was Michael Douglas, a fabulous actor who could easily have played either part (which in this film would have meant both) though because of his age (he is ten years older than Travolta and twenty older than Cage) his costar would have needed to be older as well (though it could have worked with Travolta).

Nicholas Cage appeared in Con Air, another action packed film, about a plane full of convicts, which was released three weeks before this one.  Cage is extra buff with long puffed out hair in Con Air and has short hair and has a lean muscular look here.  He must be at least twenty pounds lighter and since Con Air finished shooting in October 1996 and Face/Off started the same month I find the change impressive.  

Based on Woo's other U.S. films I expected Face/Off to have strong action sequences and that the two well known stars would enjoy making fun of each other's screen personas.  I was surprised that it is as much of a drama as an action film.  The film gets it heart by involving the hero's family directly in the plot.  In contrast Con Air kept Cage's family on the sidelines which made them more of a plot device, and bookended the film with sweet scenes helped enormously by a pretty song.  

I love the Archer family's signature of affection, the vertical stroke of the face.  It is only used to show love and never mentioned out loud.  When Sean uses it while wearing Castor's face we understand that Eve would recognize it instantly but that he also really wants to show her he loves her.  It then leads to Sean reworking his way back to his identity with the help of Eve which allows the fantastic Joan Allen, whose character has perhaps suffered the most (she lost her son and then to some degree her husband who dedicated his life to catching Castor at the expense of allowing his family to heal). 

There are many excellent scenes and touches in this film that Woo approaches from an emotional standpoint.  The action often seems to be an expression of the characters' emotion.

• The opening sequence is powerful, cutting from Sean and his son on a merry-go-round to being in the sights of Castor's sniper rifle.  Travolta's shaking from his wound and wail of pain is brave acting (all the moreso knowing that his real life son died a few years later).  Cage shows Castor with just a twinge of regret.
• Woo's cut to Sean six years later, disheveled and impatient with his team, still successful in his career but emotionally ruined, desperate to track down Castor who they know is in Los Angeles.  Castor's over the top behavior at the chorus where he grabs the girl's backside and we see what it does to him but not its effect on her, establishes him as a nutcase but ignorant of the effect of his actions on others.
• The airport shootout starts with a chase in which Sean is recklessly trying to stop the plane and Castor is just as desperate to get away.  Powell's music, Travolta's determined look through the dark sunglasses and the way Sean directs the operatives while also trying to protect them from Casper tactics makes for a sequence worthy of a climax.   There are a lot of fun moments in which they stalk each other through the boxes and ends with a Mexican face off.  The resolution of the stand off is a little weak (would Casper really try to pull a knife on a man who has a gun to his head) but the wind tunnel allows Casper to be knocked out but not necessarily hurt.
• Sean's return home in which we meet his neglected family and the beautifully cathartic moment in which he tells Eve he has captured Castor and is ready to leave the field.  It is scored beautifully by Powell and is the first of many terrific scenes Allen and Travolta have together.  This is followed by the scene in which Sean tells Eve he actually has to go back to the field.  We can understand both points of view.  He cannot tell her why but we know and she cannot understand why it has to be him.   
• The switching of the faces is presented in a near dialogue free way as a surgical procedure.
• Cage's first scene as Sean lets him react to wearing his enemy's face with mixed emotions.  First he is impressed and then pained as he has turned into the man he hates the most.  Tito's attempt to bring Sean back is indicative of their deep friendship.
• This theme is built upon in the prison scene when Sean manages to reproduce Castor's wild look in the fight and then has the high of defeating the other prisoner but it pains him to scream "I'm Castor Troy!"
• Cage, after already appearing as Sean, is Castor again when he wakes up and Woo only hints as what he looks like through a couple of frames, before showing him in the reflection of Hoag's glasses.  Hoag is shown a little beat up even though we do not see Castor's goons attack him.
• Travolta savors playing the vicious Castor throughout the second half of the film after being so effective as the harried Sean whose life has been consumed by catching Castor.  In particular I enjoy the dynamic of seeing the man who broke down completely when his son acting so dismissive of it in the scene in the church.
• Cage's work as Sean is often overlooked in discussions of the film.  His Sean is often out of sorts and trying to find his way in a world that has turned against him but starts to find his confidence once he regains Eve's trust.  Cage shows Sean's humanity and confusion with equal measures.  
• Sean, while drugged up and with Castor's face, looks in the mirror, sees Castor, and then immediately draws his gun.
• During the big shoot out in the loft Sean not only protects Adam but also tries to make him feel safe by giving him the headphones.  Woo shows a lot of this big setpiece playing "Over the Rainbow", sung by the late Olivia Newton-John (making this a third collaboration between the Grease costars) to show up Adam's perspective.   
• The scene with the two antagonists looking in the mirrors before shooting at each other shows them looking at themselves and each other at the same time.
• The contrast between Castor's enjoying having Sean's job until it really wears on him after the death of Pollux.
• The emotion between Eve and Sean as Sean recounts the story of their disastrous date which seems to come out of nowhere until the payoff.   
• Spoiler for Con Air.  The end of Con Air is almost identical in structure (hero reunites with family after a hellish ordeal) but it feels much more earned in Face/Off.  Also Con Air truly ends with a joke about Steve Buscemi's character and a montage of everyone laughing so the film will not be accused of being corny.
• When I first saw it I was impressed that the ending was so moving and unironic.  Woo trusts that our love for the family will accept this ending which only has one small joke.  The scene combines John Powell's touching melody with the slow motion of Sean coming home and smiling at Eve, who at first needs to see Sean smile with his old face, with the music swelling with relief as they hug.  When Adam appears the music takes on the same lighter bells was used when Sean was with Mike at the beginning, which sounds a little like a ride would.  Jamie's acceptance of Adam with the face stroke is a beautiful touch even if it is a little improbable that Eve would welcome a little boy into their home with just a nod, even taking into account whose child it is.  The irony is Castor took their son but then gave them another one.  Now the Archer family has both an Adam and an Eve.  Here is a more literal concern that is probably better not to think of.  Would an adoption agency approve the Archer family adopting someone who is the offspring of someone the Archer family would every reason to hate?  Sean is probably connected enough that it might sidestep that but the question remains.

Spoiler for No Time to Die.  In many ways this is the ending I would have loved to see for No Time To Die but Bond's fate is different from Archer's.  Nonetheless Face/Off does tackle a lot of the same themes as Bond, Mission Impossible and 24 which is how does an agent balance stopping dangerous threats with family life.  In these stories the family usually loses.  Based on the ending, it appears Sean is ready to put his family first as he had promised Eve.  

The film has a few detriments.  Obviously the face swapping is a sci-fi element and the film was originally written as a futuristic thriller.  Woo suggested moving it to present day to keep the focus on the characters so I will not count that.  

• It is suggested via Castor's behavior both in protecting Jamie and then his discomfort at Mike's grave, is starting to see the price of all his senseless killing.  But he reverts back to his worst self in the third act as he mercilessly guns down many innocent civilians while fleeing Sean and even disgustingly licks Jamie's face.
• The shootout in the loft shows Sascha, who were are supposed to sympathize with since she has been mistreated by both Sean and Castor, gunning down FBI agents with an automatic rifle yet Sean continues to be warm to her afterwards even though she has probably killed some of his friends.
• Why does Castor attack his own friends?  If it is all to kill Sean why not just make a phone call to someone in the loft (who are close enough to Castor that they are giving "him" shelter, even though he is on the run) to tip him off that the "Castor" in the room is an imposter to get ahold of him that way?  
• The switching of the faces is presented in a believable way in a mesmerizing scene which easily could have been skipped over.  But what the film does not touch on the differing bodies.  Travolta is ten years older than Cage which could have been played with (Castor runs out of energy sooner than his old version did).  Travolta is a little overweight and Cage is much leaner and the doctor mentions giving Sean an abdominoplasty to make his body look more like Castor but how does Castor suddenly gain them when he takes Sean's face?  Also, shouldn't Sean have appeared thinner at the film's end when he gets his face back?  
• Eve's suspicion over Sean's different behavior helps convince her of the change, but since she has sex with Castor (which Woo tastefully does not show us) wouldn't she have noticed things like different breath, hair on the body, and other details I will not mention here.
• Castor is an extremely dangerous criminal so why is he completely unguarded in the clinic even though he is in a coma?  Also how does he identify and capture two highly trained FBI agents?  
• Sean and Castor are both excellent shots, except when shooting at each other.  They miss so much it's almost comical.  
• Sean's daring escape from the prison is seemingly cooked up on the spot who helps Sean at just the slightest suggestion from the other prisoner.  A lot of guards are killed, although not by Sean, but due to his suggestion which makes him at least partially responsible.  The guards are shown to be pretty cruel but it's still worth noting.
• Sean turns his back on Castor in the church knowing Castor is armed (though since Castor never hits him it hardly matters).
• The boat chase is well executed but I was a little exhausted throughout most of it (there has been plenty of action throughout the film already) and I felt the finale did not need to be that big.  Woo could have saved the mirror scene for this sequence (maybe Sean chases Castor into a room with mirrors instead of via boat) and closed it out there.    

Face/Off is an intense experience that is my favorite Cage and Woo film and my second favorite Travolta film (after Pulp Fiction).  I would love to give it five stars but ultimately I will go with a very high ****