Plainclothes

Plainclothes

26/1/2025 1h 37m 7.3/10

Overview

In 1990s New York, an undercover police officer receives an assignment to lure and arrest gay men. However, he's surprised to discover a scintillating connection with one of his targets. As their secret connection deepens and internal pressure to deliver arrests intensifies, he finds himself torn between duty and desire.

Director

Carmen Emmi

Top Billed Cast

Tom Blyth

Tom Blyth

Lucas

Amy Forsyth

Amy Forsyth

Emily

Christian Cooke

Christian Cooke

Ron

Russell Tovey

Russell Tovey

Andrew

Maria Dizzia

Maria Dizzia

Marie

Gabe Fazio

Gabe Fazio

Uncle Paul

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

11/7/2025

7/10

Following the murder of two young girls who refused to give their killer oral sex, the authorities decide that this is a reasonable excuse to clamp down on cottaging in the gents toilets of a mall. That’s where officer “Lucas” (Tom Blyth) is put to work. He’s the handsome lure to attract gentlemen into unzipping when they probably wished they hadn’t, before they are led away in handcuffs for prosecution. Then one shift, he encounters the slightly less obvious “Andrew” (Russell Tovey) who doesn’t fall for the trap, and who slightly enthrals the young man. Indeed as the story goes on we realise that “Lucas” has a secret of his own and that what he wants from “Andrew” might fly in the face of his professional obligations. Of course, in his way “Andrew” is no different from “Lucas”. A man living a life under wraps, with his own secrets to keep - so what chance anything might come of anything? I thought Blyth held this together well as he juggled his professional, family and “private” lives together, especially as the latter element sees him become ever so slightly obsessive. The denouement is messy, but it does tie the threads together after a fashion and along the way auteur Carmen Emmi shines a light on what would appear to be an entirely disproportionate use of almost gleefully applied police resources provided based on quite a ridiculous underlying premise. Tovey’s role is maybe a little undercooked and does come across as borderline cruel at times, but the sum of the parts is a well presented critique on near-contemporaneously set homophobia, fear and forbidden love - and it is well worth a watch.

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