World Trade Center Review

"World Trade Center" reviews

Movie

World Trade Center

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-12-19 22:32:58

Rating

2.5/5

Provider

CinemaSource

Review

As a movie, World Trade Center is a decent Hollywood drama. Unfortunately, in many ways and for many people, that's what this particular story among stories, this legacy, will now be relegated to. But at least now when we hear the joke "America needs a film to help put 9/11 behind us," we have a punch line.

Story

For most of us, the feeling of being frozen on 9/11 will never leave; it was our knee-jerk reaction to news and images that we just couldn't wrap our heads around. But for policemen and -women and countless other emergency personnel in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, the knee-jerk reactions were those of duty and instinct--and, as World Trade Center demonstrates, a human's most basic instinct is to want to help a fellow human. After the first plane hit the World Trade Center, Sgt. John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage), a veteran of the Port Authority Police Department, and PAPD officer Will Jimeno (Michael Pena) were amongst the first responders who raced into the heart of pandemonium. Mere hours earlier, the two men were heading in for another day at the office, the twin towers hovering exclamation marks in the skyline that enveloped their morning commute; hours later, the officers were trapped under twisted metal that was previously the Trade Center, from which only 20 people would be rescued. WTC tells of their desperate struggle to stay awake, let alone alive, with the help of the spirits of their wives, Donna McLoughlin (Maria Bello) and Allison Jimeno (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who were equally in the dark.

Acting

Even with all the agent hardball and anticipatory buzz that likely factored into these actors earning these roles, there's something noble in their seeking involvement. That nobility manages to come across in even the smallest roles. For one, we've never seen Cage quite like this--stern, hushed, steely, impenetrable. (Even in his somber roles like Leaving Las Vegas, he is animated and herky-jerky.) But it's those traits that convey a dutiful man of the law, a man who tries to remain levelheaded even while pinned beneath a building's worth of debris--anything to improve his chances of seeing his family again. Cage also nails a subtle New York accent--which would seem in theory difficult for him--making his character lived-in instead of methodized. As his cohabitant for what seems an eternity, Pena also scores big. Last year's Crash put him on the map; WTC breaks him out. As the much younger and slightly less severely hurt of the two, Pena's Jimeno adds a touch more energy, even comedy, at one point humming TV-show theme songs. The men's beleaguered wives wear the terror on their faces and wear it well, and there couldn't have been two better choices than Gyllenhaal and Bello. Gyllenhaal's Jimeno is heavily pregnant with hormonal swings that don't help her already distraught state, while Bello's expression looks even more urgent than it did throughout A History of Violence.

Direction

If he weren't on the inside looking out, Oliver Stone might've said it himself: There's something not right about America's darkest day looking glossy as a poster advertising its movie. Ironically, it's Stone who's responsible for this effect in WTC. Doubly ironic is the fact that the man who has always been such a controversy magnet tackles his most incendiary project only to produce, by far, his tamest effort yet. In that sense, there are reasons to admire Stone's finished product--"product" in every sense of the word--but there is a gaping void where his voice or slant usually goes. And while it's honorable for him to sacrifice his beloved politicizing and philosophizing--there's hardly any attention paid to the attack or the Bush administration--for the sake of WTC's heroism, Stone, in a decidedly anti-Stone move, has turned this film into Apollo 13, all the way down to its absurd, box-office minded PG-13 rating. The true story is obviously compelling; its movie dramatization, as borderline unpatriotic as it may sound, is "soap opera" compelling. But maybe that's because, more so than Stone's sudden conservatism, some true stories--earmuffs, Hollywood--are too big for the big screen.

Bottom Line

Hollywood.com rated this film 2 1/2 stars.

Movie

World Trade Center

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-09-28 00:00:00

Provider

MyMovies

Review

At the end of Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" a caption appears on the screen that tells us just 20 people were pulled alive from the rubble of the World Trade Center buildings following the attacks of September 11th - in this dramatic recreation events Michael Pena ("Crash") and Nicolas Cage play numbers 18 and 19. The pair plays Officer Will Jimeno and Sgt. John McLoughin, two US Port Authority cops who were among the first to reach the site after the plane hit the North Tower, and were in the concourse between the two buildings when the first collapse occurred. A strong lift shaft saved their lives but they then had to endure hours of claustrophobic hell before rescuers could get to them.

Given that Oliver Stone's last film about a major moment in US history (1993's "JFK") redefined the phrase 'conspiracy theory', there were perhaps understandably some concerns about him tackling a subject that is still so raw. However the film he has made shies well away from the politics of the situation and focuses solely on what is essentially a very human story. As well as concentrating on the two trapped men, Stone also focuses heavily on their families and the effect not knowing about the fate of their loved ones has on them. He's also keen to praise those who risked their own lives by venturing into a dangerous and unstable ground zero in the hours after the attack.

Given the subject matter, "World Trade Center" was also going to be criticised by some who feel it's too soon to address the day on screen, and while Stone's movie does occasionally err on the side of patriotism, it also paints a moving and unflinching portrait of the day the world changed.

Movie

World Trade Center

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-09-22 15:55:13

Provider

MRIB

Review

As anyone who's seen Natural Born Killers and Platoon will attest, Oliver Stone isn't the kind of director who acknowledges the importance of restraint. For him the volume is constantly switched to 11 irrespective of the subject.

Which makes World Trade Center something of a departure. Here, for the first time in Stone's long career, he's seemingly intent on playing it safe at the box office, favouring meaningful blackouts over the sight of people leaping to their deaths. The disaster itself is treated discreetly, too, focusing only on the shadow of a plane and the gob-smacking thud of the impact on the tower.

The film's protagonists are veteran cop John McLoughlin (Nicholas Cage) and younger officer Will Jimeno (Michael Pena), who, having volunteered to evacuate trapped office workers, become stuck under a 20-foot deep avalanche of concrete and steel. Aware that sleep could lead to coma and death, the duo trade stories, horribly aware that time is running out. Jimeno, poignantly, tells of wanting to be a policeman ever since catching Starsky and Hutch as a child, prompting the men to hum the show's theme tune. As for their families, we see them stuck at home waiting, heart in mouths, for a simple phone call or a man in uniform to knock on their door.

In lesser hands this could have been no more than a join-the-dots exercise in schmaltz. World Trade Center, though, rings horribly true, thanks to a script that is furnished with detail and Stone's insistence on using firefighters who were present when New York's skyline was scarred beyond belief.

World Trade Center Review