Story of a man who, in the words of the narrator, "transformed himself into an angel." The man, a White Devil at the outset, is an FBI agent who successfully frames a Chinatown laundryman during the Red Scare of the McCarthy era, and who seeks forgiveness a decade later in the arms of the victim's daughter. Playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) has constructed the screenplay in three definite acts -- Guilt, Repentance, Reckoning -- and has sprinkled the action with theatrical devices (spotlights, interior thoughts spoken aloud). The guilt of the first act is solidly built up, and shouldered impressively by Matt Dillon. In the final act the writing and acting get significantly worse: a callow new partner for the FBI man ("Disgusting!"), a declamatory Asian agitator on a local campus. But the sense of period (late Sixties now) remains strong, and Dillon bears up valiantly under the fatalistic moodiness, not to mention under the cigarette smoke and the narrow-brimmed felt hat. With Joan Chen and Bruno Kirby; directed by John Madden. (1994) — Duncan Shepherd
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