Rent Johnny Handsome (1989)

A cops and robbers film with personality - Johnny Handsome review by JD

Whitaker and Rourke put in memorable performances and the main theme of whether a face makes a person is very well laid out. Most of the film however is just cops and robbers with the usual shoot outs.

Handsome Enough - Johnny Handsome review by griggs

A 1952 Hammer film, Stolen Face, kept floating back to me — that same cautious optimism that you can reconstruct a life from the outside in. Walter Hill's neo-noir is slicker, darker, and more sceptical about whether that optimism holds.

Mickey Rourke plays John Sedley — born disfigured, dealt nothing but cruelty, then offered plastic surgery as part of a rehabilitation experiment after a heist goes badly wrong. The premise is rich. The execution is mostly there. Hill keeps things taut, Forest Whitaker brings genuine warmth as the idealistic surgeon, and Ellen Barkin is reliably electric.

But I couldn't stop thinking about The Wrestler. Rourke's own ravaged face would outperform any prosthetic he ever wore. The great irony of Johnny Handsome is that it's a film about whether a new face changes a man — starring someone whose face would later become his finest performance.

Handsome enough. Just not quite beautiful.