User reviews

This is a very different movie that isn't easy to find on either VHS or DVD. I know it as "Man In Uniform" and, unfortunately, got rid of my tape after seeing this a few times. Now I regret it because I'd like to see it again.

"Disturbing" is a word most often used to describe this story. A mentally- disturbed small-time actor gets a role in a show in which he plays a cop. He begins to think that is really is a policeman and begins to impersonate one out in the streets.

This is a Grade-B type production with actors that may not be familiar outside of Canada, but it gets by. Tom McCamus plays the main role as "Henry Adler." Brigitt Bako is interesting in here, too.

If you can find this movie and enjoy stories about wacked-out people, grab it.

Tom McCamus gives a haunting performance as an actor playing a policeman in a television series, who blurs the thin line between fantasy and reality. While he is good at imitating cops, he is not so good with relationships. After quitting his bank job, the death of his father, and being rejected by his imaginary girlfriend, McManus starts to put his police uniform to use out on the street, impersonating a beat cop. This leads to some uncomfortable situations, and eventually murder. The acting and intensity in "A Man in Uniform" is excellent, I just wish the story had been developed a little further. Still, watching this decent into madness is absolutely riveting. - MERK

Slick and stylish, Canadian director Wellington's first feature is a tight, mostly unpredictable tale of urban degeneration and psychological breakdown, with a realistic, ominous atmosphere of foreboding throughout. Creating an incredibly human anti-hero, lead actor Tom MacCamus gives an appropriately nervy portrayal of Henry Adler, a fledgling method actor (and bank employee) who lands his first big role as a policeman on a tabloid-TV cop show, only to gradually go off the deep end. He starts mistaking his role with reality when a series of shattering events of urban violence and personal frustrations lead him to the edge of sanity. In the opening scenes, he witnesses a real cop get shot through the stomach on a downtown Toronto street corner in broad daylight. A brutal bank robbery occurs in the branch where he is vault manager. Initially attracted to him, his co-star on the show, Charlie (Brigitte Bako) shuns him when she senses his confused obsessiveness and moral perplexity. His cold and callous father (David Hemblen) dies of a stroke. All of these happenings conspire to make him don his cop outfit, and walk the streets, soaking up the urgent power the uniform provides him. He is so convincing, everyone takes him for a bona fide fuzz. He takes the law into his own hands and encounters the corrupt realist cop Frank (noted Seattle character actor Kevin Tighe) who speeds Henry's descent into a personal hell by showing him the seamy, amoral side of police work, on a tension-filled night journey. Chilling and mordant, the film has few false notes, and is tragedy in the best Aristotelian traditions.

Henry Adler (Tom McCamus) sees a cop get shot on the streets of Toronto and uses it in his acting audition. His boss wants him to quit his acting hobby and concentrate on his bank job. He lives alone. He gets a job playing hard cop Flannigan on the harsh TV show Crime Wave. Charlette Warner (Brigitte Bako) plays the hooker with a heart of gold. Henry starts walking the streets wearing the realistic costume. The bank gets robbed by a Marilyn Monroe type and Detective Itch investigates Henry. His father is hospitalized by a stroke. He starts dating Charlette who then pushes him away. After his TV job ends, he continues to walk the streets as a cop and gets involved with corrupt cop Frank.

This is a smaller budget Canadian movie. The production looks like it. It starts slowly. Tom McCamus is a skinny lanky type. He's more of a character actor. He does build up to a good creepiness. He's a wimp play acting who is pushed too far in the climatic scene. There are secondary stories that get big introductions and then abandoned. This is shooting for Taxi Driver but doesn't achieves anything quite so exceptional. It's still an admirable attempt.

This was an excellent film. The central performance by Tom McManus is very tightly controlled and well-developed. With its premise of a mild mannered man suddenly going on a violent power trip,I was expecting something more over-the-top and lurid,something closer to "Taxi Driver" or "God's Lonely Man",but"Man in Uniform" is actually under-played and, with the exception of a few scenes involving Kevin Tighe near the end, rather low-key. The protagonist at first seems like a typical well-behaved non-entity but Tom McManus, aided by David Wellington's excellent screenplay and direction, invests him with an alienated sense of sadness that I found somewhat touching. This is a film worth seeking out.

Amazing that this was written and directed by the guy who gave us the godawful "Zombie Nightmare." It only goes to show that you CAN improve (although anything would be an improvement from that film).

"A Man in Uniform" (the U.S. title, at least) is an incredibly well made film focusing on bank employee Henry Adler who is also trying to make it as an actor. The opening shot of a police officer getting blown away is amazing. It also serves to show how Adler (well-played by McCamus), gets the inspiration necessary for his audition as a cop on a "Hill Street Blues" type of police drama. Adler's personality is so vacant that when he asks to borrow the police officer's outfit so that he can "stay in character" he slowly becomes the cop he's portraying.

A chilling urban psychodrama that deserves to be on the list with such films as "Taxi Driver", "Falling Down" and "Death Wish". 9/10.

If this little known film doesn't open your eye's to the potential of independent films, nothing will. This actors portrayal of his characters slowly crumbling psyche is so real it's frightening and sympathetic at the same time. The scenes where he is alone, replaying in his mind the confrontations of the day and trying to figure out what he should have said and done are so effective because to some degree, we all do it. As the film advances, he straddles the line between the real world and his fantasy until he slowly slips into the fantasy completely. A powerful, raw portrayal.

I was very surprised by just how effective this movie really was. Some of the minor storylines don't work that well, but the main plot, in which an actor playing a cop starts pretending to be a cop, is great. These scenes were generally compelling, since I was never sure when (or if) he was ever going to get caught. McCamus plays the lead very well, and the rest of the cast is good, too. Quite simply, this is a very good film that deserves to be seen.

This is a film it pays to watch more than once. When I first saw it, I was tempted to dismiss it as merely bizarre. Second time around, I was absorbed by the story and thoroughly gripped by the characters and acting, particularly a superb leading performance by Tom McCamus. Fans of cop shows will also be entertained by some of the clichés we see in the fictional programme where "Henry Adler" has a role. So, if you're into cop shows, good acting and psychology, you can't do much better than this film.

This is an excellent 'sleeper' from Canadian director Wellington. Who hasn't fooled around with the idea of dressing up as a cop, a priest, or a prostitute? Ever since childhood we LOVE to dress up as what we are not. And if we get a part in a movie (albeit a T.V. Movie) and well, they DRESS US UP for the show... well, it's hard to say no! But in this movie our protagonist lets the seduction of the Strong Arm of the Law grab him a bit TOO hard. It starts filling in for his weaknesses and most demonic desires. And soon he's not 'acting' any longer. David Wellington pulls the lid off a surprisingly familiar yet un-explored Pandora's box, and we're hooked from the word 'go!'. No Deniros, and he's not Scorsese... but the tight budget and Canadian surroundings do little to weaken this memorable little sleeper.

Different levels of interpretation, and an unforgettable opening sequence (and ending too). Glad I saw it. Why don't you?

Henry Adler prefers wearing his cop uniform to his street clothes, and who can blame him? They transform him from a weedy nuisance into a sexy tough guy. Problem is, he starts enjoying the tough guy role a little too much.

Excellent acting, and an intriguing story.

As far as Canadian films go, this isn't bad. Canadian cinema is usually poorly regarded with Canada, and not without reason mind you, but there some great examples of descent film making in this country. Unfortunately, most Canadians are ignorant to those examples and "ILaMiU" is no exception.

I haven't seen it since its premier night in Vancouver, but I have never forgotten about it either. Sure its production standards probably don't meet those of Hollywood or the UK and Continental Europe's, (it looked to be shot on high resolution video from what I remember) but that is just one aspect that shouldn't rule out this film entirely. It is more sophisticated than the many films released before it, yet it doesn't ring with the pretentions of an Egoyan film. It is a solid, descent, and reasonably straightforward character study. It also has the highly undervalued, under-used, and very beautiful Brigette Bako. "ILaMiU" is worth checking out

In this movie a guy wants to be an actor. He becomes a cop and uses his uniform to pretend to be a real cop only to cause mishief. Nice acting and story. This movie is worth watching 4 times over. I give this ok movie 9 stars out of 10.

A gritty tale that traverses law & order, brittle sense of reality, identity and flights to fantasy, 'I Love a Man in Uniform' is superb. A Canadian film that won't be familiar to many, but one which struck a cord with me when I first seen it on tv by chance in the 90's and still does on repeat viewings. Large credit having to go to actor Tom McCamus in the lead role who is really effective in relaying the picture of an everyday man and a whirlwind of emotions.

Henry Adler (McCamus) a bank employee and wannabe actor nails the audition to be cast in over-the-top cop tv show 'Crimewave' and taking method acting to new levels he wears the replica uniform out in public posing as the real deal. Caught up in the power and respect so it goes from immersing himself in an acting job to something borderline scary. When co-star Charlie Warner (Brigitte Bako) whom he has misguided feelings for starts to distance herself then flat-out rejects him things further unravel as Henry comes dangerously close to his breaking point.

I can't praise McCamus enough. Without his fine acting, balancing act this could easily turn laughable if not too heavy handed. Ditto writer / director David Wellington who makes sure the material always stays grounded in as much of reality as possible as we look on at a "what-if" scenario. Bako is more than willing to be a romantic interest who puts 2+2 together and backs off, but not before its too late. However Kevin Tighe (Another 48 Hrs.) is particularly effective as a bent cop who's largely responsible for shaping the dark finale.

Tapping into a kind of energy that most human beings will feel at some point in their lives - searching for purpose, place to fit in, make sense of things both good / bad - 'I Love a Man in Uniform' has atmosphere for days. As the tale more than willingly goes down a dark alley this is a film that nails what it was going for at every step of the way.