movie minute

Soft World: The movie World Trade Center is a quintessential tale of hope and survival. As directed by controversial Oliver Stone, it also marks a new turn in the director's work. The film tells of the first responders to the crisis on the fateful September day. A port authority cop, John McLoughlin (played by go-to guy Nicolas Cage) heads up a team to help evacuate the first tower. Several men step up to assist him; one of them being Willie Jimeno (played by Michael Pena) and once inside the building their nightmare begins. The building collapses and ends up pinning several of the guys under 20ft of rubble. Three of them are pinned and only two of them make it out. It's not giving anything away to say that. The movie cuts between the two guys stuck for hours in the rubble struggling to keep each other awake and the wives of the men and how they are dealing with the news that their husbands are missing and may or may not be dead. The movie has plenty of quiet, touching and mawkish moments; more so than probably any other Oliver Stone film and many of those moments are drawn out and lacking in energy and excitement. Stone has stayed as factual as possible to the plight of the two men including the vision of Jesus that Jimeno sees at one point and the inclusion of Marine Sgt. David Karnes who was called by God to go to the World Trade Center and was instrumental in finding Jimeno and McLoughlin. He was working as an accountant in Connecticut, shaved his head, put on his old uniform and talked his way into the disaster zone. One piece missing from the film is the car he drove in (a Porsche 911). Maria Bello as Donna McLoughlin and Maggie Gyllenhaal as Allison Jimeno give fine performances but the movie never really feels powerful enough. There are hints such as when the men finally find the men and the wives and husbands are reunited but it's lacking in drama. I'm all for telling the story so that people realize we must not be idle-ever but it must hit hard. I may have liked this movie more if I had not seen United 93, the other 9/11 movie released earlier this year. Stone's movie is a nice contrast with United, however, United was relevant and made the viewer feel as if they were there, living it now. One could feel the anxiety, the propulsion of the people who aren't willing to sit idly by and the power of the American people. United 93 is one of the best films of the year while World Trade Center is one of the good movies ofthe year. Stone's WTC is a film that is uplifting but not enough. There's also an awful lot of dialogue that is stilted and trite. The real Jimeno had 8 or 9 surgeries and the real McLoughlin was put into a medically induced coma and ended up having more than 20 surgeries. There was also some controversy about the inclusion of Dominick Pezzulo (Jay Hernandez of Hostel fame). His widow was upset that he was included in the movie and while I can understand why she was angered by this, it's also important to realize that he died a hero and a film like this must be a reminder to all people that we cannot be complacent or doubtful. Anything can happen; 9/11 showed us that and changed our world forever. We can never forget that. The Stone of years past (Natural Born Killers, Platoon, JFK) should have made a movie that was more memorable than the schlock he has here.

3 Bags Of Popcorn (out of 5)

peace out,

paul