F/X

A thriller set in New York. Rollie makes special effects for films. Explosions, blood, wounds and deaths made to look real are his work. One day two men from the government side come to him. The offer is this: a mafia witness is going to testify and is under threat; he needs to appear to be killed in a public place, then change identity and disappear. Rollie accepts. The scene is set and the job goes as planned. Then something goes wrong. Rollie becomes the target, and the people who hired him come after him; it turns out the trap was something else from the start. From there the film is a flight. Rollie's only advantage is his profession: he uses effects to fool his pursuers, building fake wounds, traps and dummies. The second line is a detective. He does not believe the official version and investigates on his own. What the narrative is interested in is not action but the trick: the film shows in every scene how an effect is made, and that detail separates it from its neighbours. Bryan Brown plays Rollie and Brian Dennehy the detective. Diane Venora and Cliff De Young are in the cast. Robert Mandel directed. A sequel followed. Who it is for: anyone who likes 1980s thrillers and is curious about the back room of effects work. Who it is not for: anyone looking for logic; as the plot advances it leans on coincidence.