Brad Pitt with an Irish accent... Many young women would swoon at such a combination...
Pitt's accent comes to life in his new movie, "The Devil's Own," where he plays an Irish native speaker. He is Francis "Frankie" McGuire, a prominent IRA terrorist, who is forced into hiding in an American home, ultimately becoming an accepted member of the family.
Pitt shares the screen with another giant of Hollywood male leads, Harrison Ford, who plays Tom O'Meara, the Irish-American police sergeant that allows Frankie into his Staten Island home.
The story line allows Pitt to strut as the bad boy which he developed in "Legends of the Fall" but now he has a cause -- his dedication to the Irish Republican Army. As a child, Frankie watched his father get killed due to his alliance with the Irish Republic. This traumatic experience is supposed to have shaped Pitt's character into a passionate and lethal IRA activist.
Clad in an ever-present black leather jacket and an unflappable demeanor, Frankie is the consummate "hard guy" in his dealings with a New York arms dealer and his escapes from Irish authorities.
In the same vein, Ford grounds his performance in ardent intensity; his rendering of Tom abounds with stern glances and grim stolidness. Tom's dedication to police work is framed by a compassion for the criminals with whom he works and a well-defined moral code a blue collar version of Jack Ryan.
"The Devil's Own" examines what happens when these two staunch ideologies and strong characters come into conflict with each other- a confrontation which represents how the virulent political divisions of Northern Ireland clash with the values and laws of a more peaceful American landscape.
From this point onward, Frankie and Tom are thrust into the roles of reluctant adversaries, both driven by their individual moralities and perceived responsibilities.
In theory the film has a lot of potential: both Harrison Ford (The Fugitive, Patriot Games) and Brad Pitt (Seven, Twelve Monkeys) are well versed in artfully-crafted action dramas. However, they fail to convince the viewers in this film.
The director, Alan Pakula, appears to be close to pulling off a decent film as the opening sequences in Ireland and the United States are taut and engrossing. It includes a stirring sound track of Irish music and engaging action scenes with Frankie and the Irish police that draw us into the film.
Unfortunately, in the second half of the film, Pakula is unable to keep the story engrossing or effectively interweave the convoluted themes that are introduced into a cohesive picture.
Pitt admitted in an interview with Newsweek that "The Devil's Own" was an "irresponsible piece of filmmaking," lacking a workable script for much of the shooting. His words ring most true near the end of the film, when the credibility of the plot and the characters rapidly breaks down.
In these final scenes, when Tom searches for Frankie and finally confronts him, the action is haphazard and not credible. It does not make sense why Tom would be so relentless in searching for Frankie as he appears sympathetic to Frankie's plight as a hunted man. In addition, the potentially interesting conflict between Tom's caring for Frankie and his need to bring him in is never explored deeply by the director and remains largely hidden behind the mask of Harrison Ford's determined countenance.
Throughout the movie, there is a certain hollowness to the story, as if the director forgot to include major scenes. Examples of this thinness are Frankie's love affair with a young Irish woman which unfolds suddenly and with little conviction and the growth of his friendship with Tom's family, which also happens too abruptly.
In addition, the performances in the film, although not terrible, are all straightforward but certainly not sufficiently engaging. Only Pitt displays masterful acting in certain moments as he describes his involvement in Irish violence. In order to prepare for the role, the actor traveled to Belfast to work with a speech instructor and speak to IRA members. Pitt's accent, although mostly consistent, does not have the charm or flow of a native speaker and does not flow off his lips smoothly.
Although "The Devil's Own" looks at the acerbity of Irish political violence brought into an American sphere and the conflict between Tom and Frankie with a certain earnestness, it does not have the delicacy or consistency to fully do justice to these themes.
