Blog From The Bench

World Trade Center is a movie made up of almosts. It's almost great. It almost falls apart at times. It almost captures the horror and heroism of that day in September of 2001, and it almost makes us believe in the undeniable spirit of the American people. But just like the persistent rumors of conspiracy and inconsistencies, Oliver Stone's dry documdrama just can't shake its aura of ambiguity. At several instances within its padded two hour running time, the story of trapped Port Authority police officers Steve McLaughlin (Nicholas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Pena) gets lost in a sea of uneven family melodrama and occasionally pointless sequences. Granted, we are dealing with a near transcript like screenplay, only occasionally festooned with the typical Tinsel Town humbug. But there is a big difference between telling a story that's inherently interesting vs. interpreting one that is intrinsically dramatic. As a result, World Trade Center bounces between these two imperfect ideals, never quite centering itself in order to transcend its essential limitations.

Frankly, this is a film that has several narrative strikes against it from the very start. We know the outcome already, are almost universally versed in the events of that day, and recognize that most, if not all, of the storyline must take place between a couple of actors buried under a mountain of claustrophobic rubble. Such internal pitfalls take considerable directorial skill to overcome, and thankfully, actual auteur Stone is around to rise to the challenge. His decision to keep the images of 9/11 brief and suggestive (there are no CGI shots of the planes making contact with the towers) adds to our sense of unease as the various police and fire units respond. We are frontline witnesses to uncertainty and terror. This is a key perspective, as it is the foundation for most of the film. In fact, it is safe to say that World Trade Center is one of the few cinematic efforts that wants to accurately recreate the confusion and chaos that derives from unexpected disaster. Naturally, there are good and bad aspects of this decision. On the plus side, it gives the film a raw authenticity that could have very easily been sugarcoated for mainstream consumption. On the down side, it leaves us feeling disconnected to the events occurring onscreen.

At least the acting is uniformly good, with the men far outshining the underwritten women. As McLaughlin, Nicolas Cage has the least showy role here. Required to act with his eyes and face (the rest of him being trapped under tons of debris) he creates a nuanced, scared civil servant who never once backs down from the decision he made. Even as he's dying he's defying any questioning of his commitment. Pena's part is more problematic. It is the flashy turn, filled with emotional highs and pseudo scenery chewing lows. As a result, we get the feeling that Jimeno is a more poorly defined symbol of the 9/11 struggle. He's scared. He's antsy. He rises to the occasion when called upon (keeping Cage engaged so he doesn't fall asleep, perhaps to never wake up) and even tries to lighten things up once in a while. Yet it all seems scattered, like Pena's not sure which approach will work best. As their spouses, Maria Bello and Maggie Gyllenhaal have very little to work with. Bello is Cage's disconnected wife, and her scenes with the couple's children lack the spark that such a tragedy should create. Equally odd, Gyllenhaal is all over the map in her interpretation. Some moments she's bubbly, the next she's on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The consequence of all this confusion is that we never establish the clear-eyed goal that both men are striving for. We need to feel the same amount of yearning that they do. We have to identify with the need to reestablish the familial bonds. Again, it almost happens, but doesn't quite get there.

There are also parts here that drag, moments that lack the drama of other, more mesmerizing sequences. The supporting roles, from the soon to be dead policemen to the rescue crew (made up, partially, of the almost unrecognizable Stephen Dorff and Frank Whaley), are nothing more than archetypes, brought in to give us the human heroics required to serve the finale. As our focused Marine determined to help, Michael Shannon is more sinister than Samaritan. For some reason, Stone and screenwriter Andrea Berloff give him arcane, almost gloomy sentiments to espouse, clouding what should be a very brave, very bold individual. Sure, his military training would render him cold in situations of crisis, but humanizing our champions is what cinema is all about. Indeed, in his desire to remain faithful to the storyline and avoid the controversy he's typically associated with, Stone purposefully avoided anything that would even remotely appear to sensationalize, exploit, or distract from the reality of what happened that day. Sadly, it makes for a rather disjointed entertainment. Truth be told, if filmmakers won't take the brazen steps of interpreting the tragedy of 9/11 through their own particular philosophical or creative bent, to Hell with any and all criticism, then it is perhaps too soon for films of this type. Recreating reality only works when the truth is more compelling than fiction (or, in this case, fictionalizing). World Trade Center fits this category…almost.

7 out of 10

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