Gabriel Byrne

Three critics look separately at two priest roles Gabriel Byrne took in the same stretch of years. Stephanie Zacharek finds him more soulful and more attractive in a cassock and dog collar than in street clothes, calls him the Vatican's James Bond and adds that his job is a good deal harder. Mark Kermode, on another film out that same year, writes that he had expected more of him: the pairing with Kevin Pollak recalls how good the two of them were in The Usual Suspects, and what comes out instead is scenery-chewing. Kim Newman takes the real pleasure of Enemy of the State to lie in its shrewd casting and offers his brief appearance as the example.