Neil Jordan & THE CRYING GAME

Those of us who have held "regular" jobs know the role of the resume, the CV, as a go to sheet for what we have accomplished in our working lives. We list our former employers followed by our title held while employed there and what actions we were responsible for while at the job. This is somewhat easy, a free-flowing use of words that make us look better at a held position that in our heart of hearts we know was not that special or particularly difficult. We can embellish what supplies us pride, ignore what gives us shame, and push and pull the rest into a shape that we are willing to call, "My Working Life."

For those that work in film (or any entertainment and art field) this is not so easy. They must live and die by their filmography as posted by IMDB and in the eyes by the audience. The audience, us, we tell our friends about the films we see and at times write comments on websites to bash or raise to astonishing heights the film we love and hate. The audience can make a film which might have been a poor money maker while in theaters into a cult film that will never go away on DVD, but for every BIG LEBOWSKI and ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW there are THE HOTTIE AND THE NOTTIE and PLUTO NASH. That latter two should have made decent money solely based on the stars attached, Paris Hilton to TH&TN and Eddie Murphy to PN, but that just didn't happen. It didn't hurt either star's career too much since both are living public lives as human jokes. Both "stars" are able to continue in plugging away at their careers.

I bring this up first in discussing THE CRYING GAME because the writer/director Neil Jordan has a checkered work history of strong films mixes with bad to neglected films. For me as a viewer THE CRYING GAME is not perfect, but pretty damn close to it. I won't go into all of his films here but I will say that he is a stronger writer than director, only because he has directed a handful of films that he did not write, and those are always my least favorite of Mr. Jordan's. His greatest star powered and spotlit film to date is INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE, a film I go back and watch repeatedly, a film which brought Mr. Jordan more work opportunities, but also brought scorn from die-hard Anne Rice buffs. I have to admit I never read the books, and I also must admit that Tom Cruise did not fit exactly the part of Lestat, but it is a situation where he tried his best and having him attached helped get the film made and a larger audience outside of Anne Rice fans, which I'm sure was a major concern for the filmmakers.

Mr. Jordan has had various attempts at Hollywood films, from IN DREAMS to THE BRAVE ONE with scattered films throughout his career that are in the same vein as THE CRYING GAME and his earlier film, the amazing MONA LISA. Another film I am an incredible fan of is BREAKFAST ON PLUTO, which has a similar scenario to THE CRYING GAME of a Irishman, in this case Cillian Murphy, venturing off to London to seek himself and his fortune. Again, all of my favorite Neil Jordan films are written or co-written by Neil Jordan. The others I need more time to watch over and over again, to convince myself that they could stand next to his greatest films.