Movie Review: World Trade Center

I've heard a lot of people are upset about the film World Trade Center because it was made by conspiracy nut Oliver Stone. Well it's nothing like an Oliver Stone movie. Tackling perhaps the most tragic event of the 21st century, this film avoids the political issues and even the full scope of the day's events and tells the true story of two Port Authority policemen and their families as they deal with tragedy. John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Pena) were rescued after spending hours trapped in the wreckage of the towers.

The film is told from a human point of view. Most all the camera shots are from eye level or are closeups. The purpose is to give us the knowledge of the people at the time, which wasn't much. McLoughlin and Jimeno didn't know a second plane had struck the second tower and they didn't know the buildings had collapsed until they were pulled from the rubble.

It's pretty early in the film that they are trapped, they were still in the lobby having just gathered equipment. As a result, Cage and Pena performances consist mostly of closeups of parts of their faces as they can't move at all. They both do a good job.

To avoid too much claustrophobia in the film we also see the story of the families as they wait to hear if their husbands are still alive. Maria Bello plays Donna McLoughlin and Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Allison Jimeno. All the performances are strong. I thought I'd find Maria Bello more compelling but I found I cried more during Gyllenhaal's scenes. Yeah I cried at times, everyone did, this is powerful stuff.

The other story told is that of ex-Marine Staff Sgt Dave Karnes (Michael Shannon) who was near New York City when he heard about the events. He decides to go to ground zero to help, after first getting a haircut. While searching through the rubble, he was the one to find McLoughlin and Jimeno. You might think this is some made up Hollywood contrivance, but it's actually a true a story. Reality is stranger than fiction. The hallucination of Jesus with a water bottle was also according to Jimeno's recollection.

It's hard not to compare this film with United 93, but they are very different films. United 93 tells it's story in close to real-time. World Trade Center covers about a full day. In real life Jimeno was pulled out after 12 hours and McLoughlin after 22 hours but this isn't apparent from the film, probably because they couldn't keep track of time either. I was surprised when a rescuer said it would be dark in a half hour, wondering where the day had gone.

United 93 used unknown actors (and in many cases the real life people playing themselves in air traffic control centers) and we didn't ge to know them. World Trade Center uses famous actors and gives us personal stories and flashbacks. While the performances were strong I found knowing the actors distracting. One of the other cops was familiar and I spent some time figuring out that it was Mike Novick from TV's "24".

United 93 told the story of the air traffic controllers and the people on that flight. It kept to those sets and had a documentary feel to it. World Trade Center mostly does the same but there are occasional shots that break the mold. There's an aerial shot of lower Manhatten showing smoke rising from ground zero and a montage of world leaders offering support. That's the closest the film comes to getting political but I sat watched that thinking "my how times have changed", just like I was supposed to.

In United 93 you knew the people would sacrifice themselves to save others, and that's what the film shows. In World Trade Center you know McLoughlin and Jimeno survive. The film ends with a voice over saying how that day also brought out the best in us, people helping other people. But aside from Karnes' story there's little of that actually shown in the film. It's mostly about two men trapped and facing their own deaths and their families being anxious, in other words, drama bordering on melodrama.

This is a really good film. It told a story I didn't know and it told it honestly and powerfully. It's Oliver Stone's best film in two decades. Go see it. And yet, United 93 told a stronger story in a more compelling and less Hollywood way.

Speaking of other films, there were a lot of previews at the beginning of World Trade Center. Here are the interesting looking ones that I could remember: The Departed, Hollywoodland, Flyboys, The Prestige, The Black Dahlia, Invincible, and Babel.