Movie · 1992 · Crime, Drama, Thriller · 1h 52m · R · English
Curator score: 7.0/10 (102.7K ratings)
...play it at your own risk.
Overview
Irish Republican Army member Fergus forms an unexpected bond with Jody, a kidnapped British soldier in his custody, despite the warnings of fellow IRA members Jude and Maguire. Jody makes Fergus promise he'll visit his girlfriend, Dil, in London, and when Fergus flees to the city, he seeks her out. Hounded by his former IRA colleagues, he finds himself increasingly drawn to the enigmatic, and surprising, Dil.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.0/10
IMDb: 7.2/10
Letterboxd: 3.62/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Metacritic: 90
TMDB: 6.8/10
Director
Neil Jordan
Production
Palace Pictures, Nippon Film Development and Finance Inc., Eurotrustees, Channel Four Films
Cast
Stephen Rea, Miranda Richardson, Jaye Davidson, Forest Whitaker, Adrian Dunbar, Breffni McKenna, Joe Savino, Birdy Sweeney, Andrée Bernard, Jim Broadbent, Ralph Brown, Tony Slattery, Jack Carr, Josephine White, Shar Campbell, Bryan Coleman, Ray De-Haan, David Crionelly, Charles Mandracchia
Where to watch
fuboTV, MGM Plus, Philo
Curator Review
Verdict
A smart, tense political thriller that becomes something stranger and more emotionally complicated halfway through. Its famous twist is only part of the appeal; the film also works as a romance, a character study, and a study of identity under pressure.
Best for
Viewers who like twist-driven thrillers
Fans of politically charged crime dramas
People interested in queer cinema history
Audiences open to morally messy characters
Viewers who appreciate 1990s prestige filmmaking
Skip if
You want a straightforward thriller with no tonal shifts
You are looking for a modern, fully contemporary treatment of gender identity
You dislike films where the second half changes the meaning of the first
You prefer action-heavy crime stories
Overview
The Crying Game is one of those films whose reputation can flatten it, because the twist became the headline for decades. But the movie is more interesting than its cultural shorthand suggests. Neil Jordan builds a tense, slippery thriller around loyalty, coercion, and the emotional fallout of violence, then lets it mutate into something tender and uneasy.
Worth noting
What gives it staying power is the performances, especially Stephen Rea’s wounded drift and Jaye Davidson’s magnetic stillness. The film is at its best when it is least certain of itself, moving between political danger, romantic longing, and identity crisis with a kind of nervous elegance. It can feel uneven, but that instability is also part of its power.
Bottom line
Seen now, it is both a landmark and a product of its era: progressive in some ways, dated and controversial in others. Even so, it remains a major ‘90s film because it refuses to stay in one genre or one emotional register. It is a thriller that keeps turning into a heartbreak story, and that transformation is what makes it memorable.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Hesse (5★) · 1435 likes
The top rated review of this movie is so bad I have to set the record straight lol.
First of all, I love her but if Julia Serano called this movie transphobic she is wrong. Dil is one of the greatest trans characters ever written, honestly one of my favorite characters ever written period. She has hopes, fears, dreams, habits, friends, enemies, strengths, flaws, AGENCY! Fergus has no agency AT ALL so the critique that Dil and “her gender” (?) are… more
Sally Jane Black · 335 likes
I've no idea where I put either of my copies of Whipping Girl, otherwise, I'd quote directly from it. Regardless, Julia Serano deconstructs the pivotal twist in this film and its inherent, violent transmisogyny in detail in her book, and I feel it's redundant to go over it again. Suffice it to say that it plays the Ace Ventura scene seriously, having Stephen Rea react viscerally to Dil's body, out of revulsion at her naked penis. Henceforth, he misgenders her… more I've no idea where I put either of my copies of Whipping Girl, otherwise, I'd quote directly from it. Regardless, Julia Serano deconstructs the pivotal twist in this film and its inherent, violent transmisogyny in detail in her book, and I feel it's redundant to go over it again. Suffice it to say that it plays the Ace Ventura scene seriously, having Stephen Rea react viscerally to Dil's body, out of revulsion at her naked penis. Henceforth, he misgenders her… more
KYK (3★) · 308 likes
not this cis white woman with huge ms. monopoly energy being the poster...
Mike D'Angelo (4★) · 203 likes
78/100
Chickens out twice—first by engineering a way for Jody to die without Fergus actually killing him (which really feels cowardly), and then by carefully skipping past what may or may not have been a Fergus-Dil sex scene (it's not at all clear to me what, if anything, happens between them physically). Yet the film is still mostly glorious, simply because Rea and Davidson make one of the greatest couples in cinema history. In particular, I'd forgotten (been over 20… more
Sam (1.5★) · 197 likes
Pride Month Challenge - Film 2: A film nominated for Best Picture with a queer character
The first half-hour of this film is such a tense, powerful and interesting experience. It expertly balanced a well-established tone, snappy yet natural dialogue, and creative intensity which not only hooked me in but left me with a feeling of warranted curiosity and excitement for what was to come. Unfortunately, the rest was absolutely horrendous. I understand that the so-called “big twist” happens within this… more