"World Trade Center" Review

The September 11 Terrorist attacks were a horrible, tragic event. They were one of the darkest moments in our national history. I will never deny that. But the emotional impact of the real-life events that a film is based on does not automatically make the film good, and World Trade Center is not a good film.

The film follows a group of police officers as they enter the South Tower of the World Trade Center to attempt to rescues trapped civilians. Just as they enter the building, it collapses on them- killing all but two, and leaving those two, officers Jimeno and McLoughlin, trapped underneath the rubble.

The film cuts between conversations between McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) & Jimeno (Michael Peña) and the reactions of their families to the attacks, as well as a group of marines participating in the recovery effort. The cops are, or course, rescued, and the film ends on a shiny happy note of two guys reunited with their families with nary a mention of the other 2,996 people who weren't so lucky.

The first half hour or so of World Trade Center is fantastic. These are the moments when the world first sees the attacks, and director Oliver Stone wrings the emotions of the audience for all it's worth. There's really no denying the sheer horror of the real events, and no director could diminish that even if they tried. It's a shame then, that once the attacks are over, the film devolves into meandering melodrama.

When Nicolas Cage is in a movie, you can expect one of two, bizarrely contrasting things: either he will be remarkably subdued, and the film will be great, or he will play it ludicrously over the top, and the film will be terrible. There are some exceptions where he is over-the-top and it does work (such as in Face/Off or Bad Lieutenant 2), but this is the only film of his that I can think of where being subdued is to his detriment. He is far too bland, quiet, and uncaring in the role of John McLoughlin; surely the real McLoughlin, who participated in the film, could have given him a few tips on how terrified he actually was on that day. The rest of the cast is just as boring, but they're so "simply there" that criticizing them isn't even worth the trouble.

Maybe a film that truly understands 9/11 could never be made. There are so many conundrums surrounding it that it would be very hard to turn out anything more meaningful than this turd. But regardless- the victims deserve a better memorial than Stone's. Maybe some day.

Awful