ABSTRACT
The conflict between the romantic and social perspectives that characterizes the unlikely couple film is predicated on the significance accorded hierarchic orderings of class, race, gender, and sexual orientation. Neil Jordan's The Crying Game sets its sights on this very issue— its goal, to destabilize such schemes of ordering by showing that they do not adequately capture—indeed they deform—the reality of human experience. The Crying Game's basic narrative strategy is to use the story of a pair of unlikely couples—or more accurately, perhaps, of an unlikely triangle—to demonstrate that human beings can overcome the social divisions that separate them to arrive at an essential commonality. The Crying Game's narrative strategy involves deceiving its viewers about the significance of what is transpiring on-screen. The revelation of Dil's sex precipitates a crisis for The Crying Game's unlikely couple, for Fergus's heterosexuality should preclude romance with a male transvestite.
