The wistful Emily Wells song, My San Francisco, plays over the end titles of Carmen Emmi’s Sundance award-winning thriller PLAINCLOTHES, a plaintive song to end Emmi’s My Own Private Idaho influence.
Set in 1990s Syracuse, PLAINCLOTHES follows Lucas, a promising undercover police officer assigned to lure and arrest gay men who expose themselves in public places.
Thing is, Lucas is a closeted gay, and what begins as another setup becomes something far more electric and intimate when he encounters Andrew, a slightly older man with his own queer camouflage.
As their secret connection deepens and police pressure to deliver arrests intensifies, Lucas finds himself torn between duty and desire and the loss of a love letter and its eventual discovery fuels another front of deceit, a powder keg of volatility that threatens family stability and professional future.
In the ‘90s, being “gay” felt like a death sentence, amplified by the pervasive fear of AIDS and Lucas lives in a constant state of fear of exposure. That fear is shared by Andrew, whose double life is also compromised by the affair.
Strikingly shot by Ethan Palmer and assembled in an avant garde mode by Emmi and his editor Erik Vogt-Nilsen, PLAINCLOTHES weaves Hi8 footage-most of which was shot on-set between takes-into the final cut to represent Lucas’ inner thoughts: what he sees and what he believes he sees.
Tom Blyth is a typically torn Lucas, confused by his sexuality, willing to surrender to it, yet tormented by filial and professional duty. Russell Tovey as Andrew endeavours to be more sage, having had experience in managing his duplicity succeeding in keeping parts of his life segregated.
With a beautiful score by Emily Wells, PLAINCLOTHES is a low key study of secrets and lies, desire and deception hiding in plain sight. It deserves to be exposed.
