Face/Off

REVIEW
After two disappointing starts, director Woo has finally hit his stride in American cinema with this highly textured, complicated film which nearly equals the excellent work he did in Hong Kong. The inventive script sets up a situation that, although it is completely implausible, plays right into Woo's strength: an intimate conflict between two inextricably connected men of action. Travolta is Sean Archer, an FBI agent committed to the capture of terrorist Castor Troy (Cage), who murdered Archer's son in a botched assassination attempt. Troy is captured, but put into a coma, and Archer assumes his identity. But Troy soon wakes up, assumes Archer's identity and takes over his old life. They soon share a bond which is more complex than that of traditional hero and villain. The action sequences are brilliantly staged and the dramatic content of the film -- Allen brings a quiet strength to the role of Archer's wife -- finally lives up to Woo's famous pyrotechnic sequences.