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Film

World Trade Center film review

WORLD TRADE CENTER
12Acertificate_12A

WORLD TRADE CENTER


Running time: 125 mins
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Michael Peņa, Maria Bello, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon
Tiscali Rating of 05Tiscali Rating of 05

When it was announced Oliver Stone was proposing to make a film about the events of September 11, there was understandable concern. With credits that include Salvador, Nixon and JFK, it was feared the iconoclastic director might use it as an opportunity to vent his strong political views. Such fears have proved unfounded. Ironically, it's the lack of political bite that is one of World Trade Center's weakest elements. Instead Stone, who received a purple heart serving in Vietnam, has chosen not to apportion blame but to celebrate the heroism of those who went to the rescue of others that day. The result is an overly sentimental, sluggish bore.

That Stone has reduced one of the most significant and dramatic episodes in America's history to a stock Hollywood disaster movie is both sad and disappointing. Where United 93 - Paul Greengrass' far more effective film about 9/11 - avoided establishing a personal connection with the people involved, Stone has taken the opposite approach. World Trade Center focuses on two Port Authority policeman, Sgt John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and Will Jimeno, (Michael Peņa), who become trapped in the rubble. Andrea Berloff's script, based on the true accounts of McLoughlin, Jimeno and their wives, is centered on establishing an emotional tie with the two men.

The liberal use of flashbacks, depicting all too cute scenes with the two men and their families, the demonstration of their fear and courage amidst the chaos and their remarkable endurance all combine to lay on the sentiment a bit thickly. And with Nicolas Cage's ability to elevate earnestness to new heights, World Trade Center is rather too heavy handed. The sense of contrivance and manipulation is so palpable at times it's all too easy to forget the events being depicted actually happened. It's certainly a far cry from the chilling reality of United 93.

WTC opens with McLoughlin waking up at 3.29am on that fateful day to leave his wife Donna (Maria Bello) and three kids to drive to work. We then see several of his colleagues as they head in for their shift. What the film does convey effectively is the sheer confusion in the period following the first plane hitting. As McLoughlin and his men enter the World Trade Center to help in the evacuation, they aren't even aware the second tower has been struck. After the film's most unsettling moments as it shows the tower collapsing all around, McLoughlin and Jimeno find themselves trapped under an avalanche of rubble.

Having your two central characters immobile for the bulk of a film is a problem. Small talk about each other's families and insistence neither falls asleep can only sustain you for so long. The other problem is the fact the outcome is never in doubt. Not that it ever is in Hollywood. But the tactics Berloff and Stone employ to prolong the inevitable do little to speed its welcome arrival.

Kevin Murphy


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