|
American Women's Club of Hamburg  Film Reviews -- September 2006Reviews by members of the AWC Film Group of films slated to open in Hamburg in September 2006.
(Rita PS) Opening September 7, 2006 Americans love their cars and this film is nothing if not a tribute to America’s love affair with automobiles and driving. The problem is cars are cool and animation is great but even Pixar can have too much of a good thing. A world where everything is a car, even bugs are Volkswagens with wings, the gag gets annoying about halfway through standard script number 3: the coming-of-age movie. Our hero Lightning MacQueen (Owen Wilson) is a racing rookie with his eyes on the prize-winning Piston Cup and the lucrative endorsement deal with Dinoco. But he has no friends. I’ll spare you the details of how he ends up in a small town off of Route 66 called Radiator Springs on his way to the Piston Cup race in Los Angeles. Or the standard discourse about how the superhighway changed not only the nature of driving but the course of life in the US. Of course forced out of the real world in Radiator Springs, Lightning finds friendship, love and direction, literally and metaphysically. Radiator Springs has the usual outcasts and eccentrics who have become standard in the coming-of-age movie, be it the war buddy movie or The Breakfast Club. No comment on the one-dimensional personalities or knee jerk stereotypes. Here the crew includes a cute lawyer girl/love interest Porsche from Los Angeles named Sally (Bonnie Hunt), a rusty old Okie 50s truck going by the name of Tow Mater, some sleek 60s Chevrolets with fins - Ramone and his brother from the barrio, the bodacious Flo owner of the V8 bar in town, a cute Cinquecento Italian selling tires and of course the father figure, judge Hank the Hornet, a man with a past. They do their bit and our hero grows up and finds his way to LA. Yes he gets the prize, the girl and friends to boot. This is after all a Disney movie. It is a far cry from the poignancy or intelligence of Toy Story but entirely watchable if what you need is escape. Just go.
(Rita PS) Opening September 7, 2006 When I heard about Frances McDormand, Catherine Keener, Joan Cusack and Jennifer Aniston all taking part in Nicole Holofcener’s film, I anticipated a film full of sexy women with fantastic sense of humor. However, Friends with Money gave me a headache instead of the levity I have experienced after watching McDormand, Keener and Cusack in other films due to the comic takes that let them shine. In what can only be taken as Holofcener’s effort to show how Los Angeles women deal with or fail to deal with their midlife crisis we meet three spoiled women uncomfortable with their good luck and one woman a victim of her own devices. The film’s conceit is that all women approaching midlife are unhappy in their own way and for those lucky enough to have money and social status it just shows less or less brutally. Franny (Cusack) and Matt (Greg Germann) are happily married and have the kind of money that makes work irrelevant. They tend to fight about artificial things like Matt’s preference to spoil their daughter with nice things and Franny’s stricter approach. Christine (Keener) and David (Jason Isaacs) are a successful screenwriting team. Married with one child they have not had sex in a year but they think building an additional floor to enhance the view from their bedroom will save them. Jane (McDormand) and Aaron (Simon McBurney) also have one son and run a very successful women’s designer clothing label. Olivia (Aniston) is the fourth member of the quartet and she is pining away for her ex boyfriend who is now married to someone else. She quit her job at an elite private high school because her students harassed her about driving a crappy car. Now she cleans houses for a living. We cringe when she ends up having a non-relationship with Mike (Scott Cann). He may be a personal trainer today but if he plays his cards right, this social parasite just might be the next restaurant, movie theatre, hotel, club mogul in a few years. After the film runs its course, the only things that are clear are 1) sometimes marriage is terminally ill and you might as well pull the plug; 2) good things come to those who wait; 3) not all men who think about their clothes instead of just throwing them on are gay. Let’s give the director credit for trying a difficult topic. Unfortunately she just might ensure that no one else touches this important topic with a ten-foot pole.
(Mary W) Opening September 7, 2006 In a very small town, an ordinary, boring guy falls prey to adulterous passions in this plodding film by German director Valeska Grisebach. Markus (Andreas Müller) and Ella (Ilka Welz) were childhood sweethearts who married and, now in their thirties, live a happy but rather dull and innocent life together. That is until Markus visits a nearby town for an overnight fire brigade training course. After dinner Markus does some heavy drinking and very slow dancing. The next morning Markus wakes up with the waitress Rose (Anett Dornbush). Although Markus believes he still loves Ella, he is constantly drawn back into the arms of one-dimensional Rose with a passion that finds him accidentally pushing Rose off the hotel room balcony in an embrace gone wrong. He decides to shoot himself and not soon enough for most of the audience, at least those few left who awoke at the end of the press screening. The star is for the kids featured at the end of the film who are discussing the love triangle and actually make it sound interesting.
(Kara W) Opening September 7, 2006 Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips, Under the Radar) is enjoying the beautiful scenery in Hawaii when he stumbles across a crime scene for a murder committed by the notorious Asian crime lord Eddie Kim. His life suddenly takes a drastic turn as he finds himself being chased by contract killers and FBI agents. Agent Neville Flynn (Samuel Jackson, Good Fellas) takes it upon himself to get Sean safely to Los Angeles to testify and finally put Eddie Kim behind bars. However, being one step ahead, Kim manages to fill the airplane with a few hundred of the world’s most poisonous snakes to ensure the plane never makes it to its destination. Throughout the plot, snakes drop from every possible hiding place, aggressively killing the victims as they do so. If this film sounds cheesy, it’s because it is. Though Jackson manages to portray his character with grace and ease, sadly, it’s not enough to make this film a winner. Original in idea but terrible on screen, this movie can make even the strongest of stomachs turn as literally every part of the body is attacked. Though not entirely a surprise, there seems to be more blood and gore than snakes throughout the movie. Comedy is woven throughout the horror and though the effort is fantastic it just does not add enough to make this film well-rounded enough to be a fantastic theatre experience. Two questions ran through my mind while watching, “When is this finally going to end?” and “Where’s Steve Erwin and his snake stick when you need him?” Other reputable actors include Julianna Marguiles (ER-Emergency Room), Kenan Thompson (Fat Albert), and Elsa Pataky (The Art of Dying). Save your money, folks, this one is not worth the expense.
(Kirstan B) Opening September 7, 2006 Water, the story of an eight year old Hindu widow, Chuyia (Sarala), is set in the time that Mahatma Gandhi was rising to power in 1938 colonial India. The common practice of young girls marrying older men often brought about the circumstance of mere children bound to the standing (unspoken) cultural law that all widows should live out the rest of their lives in penitence for their “sins”, away from society in special ashrams (institutions). The only other acceptable “choice” for a widow is to throw herself onto the funeral pyre of her deceased husband to absolve bad Karma. Despite the fact that the British colonial government established a law forbidding the practice of forcing widows into the pyre or ashrams, this practice is still followed today, thus inspiring director Deepa Mehta to choose this subject for Water, the last film in the trilogy including Fire (1996) and Earth (1998). The long gap between films falls into a politically-charged religious battle in India between right-wing Hindi and the director’s controversial subject matter concerning women’s rights. The first attempt to film Water on the Ganges River invoked violent protests and disruption and had to be abandoned. Four years later, Mehta began fresh in Sri Lanka and Water was beautifully shot and released in Nov. 2005 to critical acclaim. A sadness prevails throughout the film, not just as a knee-jerk response to child injustice, but rather as a result of an insightful character study of all the widows gathered in the ashram. The beautiful Kalyani (Lisa Ray) is forced by the house matriarch to support the ashram by prostitution with the local gentry under the veil of nightly boat crossings. But it is the educated Shakuntala’s notably poignant role in the group (Seema Biswas) that underscores the fine line between hopelessness and devout adherence to Hindu practice. From a western perspective, we are not only appalled at the level of acceptance and hypocrisy required to sustain such a culture where this life is yoked onto women., but also by how cruel the hierarchy is among the widows themselves in their shunned society. (Becky T) Opening September 14, 2006 Photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand had an idea in 1994 and began developing it seriously in 2000. He photographs Planet Earth from a helicopter. The result is long, gorgeous shots of islands, water, desert, tilled fields, and dyed cloth or crops spread out to dry. People in the photos are small compared to the grandness of the planet. There is an inconsequential storyline: father and son discuss the world. The photographs are the important part, nicely accompanied by music from Armand Amar. This premiered in Hamburg at the 2005 Film Festival and festival director Albert Wiederspiel compared Arthus-Bertrand to an artist who sneaks into museums at night to continue working on his old masters which are on display, since they “aren’t finished yet.” In the same manner Arthus-Bertrand is still working on this film, which he considers incomplete and for which there has just recently been an official press showing. Naturally, this is a five-star film; rating it lower would be like saying that God’s creation is not quite up to par. There is a terrific website where the artist offers his photos for free to be used as wallpaper: www.yannarthusbertrand.com. This film is highly recommended, especially to anyone interested in photography.
(Kara W) Opening September 14, 2006 Based upon the book by Patrick Süsskind, this film is a story of both horror and beauty. Set in 1738, the opening shows the viewer a rather accurate view of life in Paris: the filth, poverty, and over-crowded accommodations of a busy market as the day progresses. When a very pregnant worker at the fish market goes into labor, no one takes notice as she slips down behind the table and to give birth, severing the umbilical cord from her newly born child herself. As she lays the shivering, bloody infant amongst the fish heads to be discarded later on in the day, we learn from the narrator that this is no new event but rather the fifth time to occur and that this little one is to be thrown away into the murky Parisian waters just like all the others. Though life will not be entirely kind to Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw), for it is he lying on the ground, he will be fortunate enough to be heard when the stench of his surroundings irritate his delicate nose and bring him to screaming, therefore saving his life. As Jean-Baptiste grows, there will be many attempts on his life, not because he finds himself in the wrong places, but rather even the smallest of children detect that there is something rather different about Jean-Baptiste and, truly, there is. Jean-Baptiste learns to differentiate between all smells through his pronounced sense of smell before he can even speak, a capability that will come at a much later age. As Jean-Baptiste passes from hand to hand for the hard work he provides, he loses himself more and more the world of smell that envelops him. He finds beauty and comfort in all smells, the sweet scent of flowers, the wet earth, and even the smells of decay and death. For Jean-Baptiste, this represents comfort and companionship, something he has never known from family or humans in general. Unfortunately, he also finds the beauty in a passing woman with fiery red hair one day, captivated not by the way her body looks but by the odor it gives off. Obsessed with his discovery, he follows her home, only to accidently kill her while trying to obtain as much of her smell to memory as possible. This will not be the last of this obsession. Luck finds its way to Jean-Baptiste one day while delivering leather to the famous perfumer Baldini (Dustin Hoffman). When given the chance, Jean-Baptiste manages to woo the older man who has obviously lost his touch with his ability to recognize the notes and ingredients to a perfume, even though he’s unable to name them. In exchange for new recipes for perfumes, Baldini takes in Jean-Baptiste to teach him all there is to know about being a perfumer. Still longing for the smell of the red-haired beauty, Grenouille travels down a hill of obsession of trying to learn how to captivate not flowers but the human scent for the perfect perfume, including a thirteenth note which will render him powerful with the new smell. He sets off in search of this journey only to come across another fiery red-haired woman with a scent to make him mad with lust. Alan Rickman (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) portrays Antoine Richis, father of Laura (Rachel Hurd-Wood) who will serve to be the first of many women on Jean-Baptistes journey. Rickman does an excellent job in this role, giving it a life and feel that he seems to embody. After stumbling upon the process of conserving the human scent, Jean-Baptiste begins his hunt for the perfect smells to create his perfect perfume. Full of rich imagery, this film stays true to life at this particular time, staying as close as possible without adding or taking away from how it actually was. The music added wonderfully to the film, swelling up and rushing away the viewer at times when the movie was at its best. Such images as hundreds of crimson rose buds amongst a subdued and darkened background stay with the viewer as the film and story advances. This film, though odd at moments to say the least, was an absolute joy. Though I saw this film in German and not English, as it was originally filmed, it just makes me all the more curious to see this a second time. Worth the time and the money, I would suggest this work of art to anyone. (Becky T) Opening September 21, 2006 Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) loses his girlfriend Emily to a drug episode (the bricks are made of heroin) and he sets out to find the guilty party. Brendan seeks the drug dealers in his high school. He shares his plan of action with his best friend, a master thinker of few words called The Brain, who runs interference for him with the teachers. His search takes him to The Pin, who leads a gang which includes a muscle-bound bouncer called Tugger, a druggie named Dode, a moll called Laura and even The Pin’s mother who serves him cereal in her kitchen. Behind this simple plot lies a first film by Rian Johnson which reflects his love of Dashiell Hammett’s fictitious detective Sam Spade and film noire. After graduating from a California film school, Rian Johnson planned his film for six years and filmed in 20 days. His whole family invested money; his brother Nathan wrote the music; best friend Steve Yedlin worked the camera. His perseverance reaped rewards when Brick was a surprise sleeper success at the 2006 Sundance film festival and won first prize for Originality of Vision. Some critics predict that it could become a cult film such as Sex, Lies and Videotape. There are eerie scenes around completely empty high school corridors and athletic field. Brendan takes many hits to the chin and still manages to come back fighting. All of the characters speak in a half modern, half old-fashioned slang (see it in English if possible) There are secret notes with a mysterious letter “A” on them. There is a surprise ending, which is not really a surprise if you follow old Humphrey Bogart detective movies. Rian Johnson has made a very interesting first film which earns our respect and attention to his career from now on.
(Karen P) Opening September 21, 2006 The world of a junkie under microscope is the story of Candy from Australian director Neil Armfield. His screenplay adaptation from Luke Davies’ novel of the same name takes the life of heroin drug addicts and opens our emotions to their mixed up world. The exhilaration of their undying love insulated Dan (Heath Ledger) and Candy (Abbie Cornish) into a cocoon that would never allow them to mature. Dan was a lover of literature and a natural poet. Candy was an artist who longed to see her paintings loved by the world. Dan fondly recalls the first time he met Candy: “Everything was like juice.” Dan was a “lost boy” with no adult role models in his life except a sugar daddy friend, Casper (Geoffrey Rush). He was also a functional heroin addict. However, he was always looking for purpose and along came Candy. He purposed to stay with her forever. Candy, on the other hand, came from a stable environment. Her parents invested their whole lives in loving her and her world, but never imagined it would encompass drug addiction. Candy wanted a life with Dan but unfortunately, his world was controlled by heroin, which eventually became her fate. This world offered no perspective for life, not to mention a hopeful future for their marriage or a family. Candy herself never dreamed her functional addiction would turn her into a junky and would take away her dignity and the love of her life. Armfield’s journal-style narrative makes a vivid connection to the junkie’s world and leaves a remarkable impact that grips your heart and pains your gut.
(Shelly S) Opening September 21, 2006 Mom Shelly says: This is a simple story of a tiger (Til Schweiger) and a bear (Dietmar Bär) who love their home but would like to see what is on the other side of the hill. After finding a banana crate from Panama they begin to fantasize how Panama is the best land to be in and thus begins their adventure. This film is suited for small children, age 2-8. This could be a good first film for a child since nothing terrible happens and there are not very many films in this category these days. The music is sweet and the animation is cute but this is not the big adventure story like the one that Lars the Polar bear takes. Son Adrian (age 8) says: For children over eight this film may be a bit boring. I did not like that the characters weren’t intelligent. I did not like that they don’t ever get to the real Panama and I guessed that they would end up back at home way before it happened. I didn’t like how their good, new fish friend just says goodbye without really discussing the separation.
(Mary W) Opening September 21, 2006 This film by British legendary director Michael Winterbottom with Mat Whitecross uses archive footage, interviews and dramatized scenes to recreate the events surrounding the true story of British Muslim friends who travel to Pakistan for a wedding and end up at the American prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. In September 2001, Asif Iqbal from England is instructed by his mother to go to Pakistan and marry the woman that she has chosen for him. He asks three friends, Ruhel Ahmed, Shafiq Rasul and Monir Siddiqui to be his witnesses at the wedding. The four friends, two of whom are teenagers, meet in Karachi where they attend a mosque with Shafiq’s cousin Zahid. The imam is organizing a group to go to Afghanistan for humanitarian aide and asks them to come along. They are curious about Afghanistan and agree. After a long, exhausting journey, they arrive in Kandahar coincidentally, and unfortunately, on the first night of bombing by the United States when the U.S. troops begin their “retaliation” against the Taliban for the attacks of September 11. The friends continue on to Kabul where they become ill and stay to recover. When they are ready to return to Pakistan, they find themselves instead caught under heavy bombardment near Kundun. They are separated from Monir, who is never seen again. Asif, Ruhel and Shafiq are taken captive by the Northern Alliance. After being shifted around different prison camps within Afghanistan, it is discovered they are English so they are turned over to the U.S. military. They thought they would then be sent home to England but instead, they are treated as terrorist traitors and face endless interrogation, torture and solitary confinement finally being incarcerated for over two years at Camp Delta, the U.S. Army prison camp located in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Now back in Britain, it is clear that the journey they started together is by no means at an end. Are they all criminals or victims of circumstance? A must see film to join the debate.
(Pat R) Opening September 21, 2006 Adopted from short stories written by Dany Laferriere, Vers le Sud is a lazy, drifting comment on a third world country, Haiti, once again exploited by their richer northern neighbors. This time however the exploiters weren’t wealthy plantation owners or mining companies, merely wealthy middle-aged American women, paying for sex from the local beach boys. Their rationalizations are selfish and racist, but truth easily fades in the heat and the sun. The effect of money on poorer countries can be just as influential and disastrous as a military invasion – it is just subtler. Ellen (Charlotte Rampling) is an aging Boston French literature professor who has stayed at the same hotel for the past six years, enjoying the companionship of the local boys. Brenda returns fifteen years later, still remembering her first orgasm that she had experienced with a young boy named Legba. The battle between them for the handsome and full grown Legba’s attention and affection dominates the dialogue. How their token tips and lustful cravings affect Legba’s survival during the last years of Baby Doc’s dictatorship interests them not in the least. They are too absorbed by their own frustration of being unable to attract suitable partners to worry about how their selfish ways could affect the lives of other, lesser beings. Unfortunately we learn little of substance about what was happening on the streets of Haiti, during the late 1970s, although it could as easily be now, twenty-five years later. Legba never expresses his attitudes other than to tell Ellen that she isn’t his mother and that he doesn’t want to be “rescued” by her and taken back to the States- a somewhat hollow gesture on her part. The black manager of the hotel reflects back on the invasion of the island in 1915 but makes little political comment otherwise. He merely comforts his guests after Legba’s death. Not to worry – tourists are never hurt.
(Karen P) Opening September 21, 2006 The award winning Russo brothers (Anthony and Joe) began submitting feature films in 1997 to the Slamdance Film Festival to see if their product would be endorsed among a younger generation of independent film makers. They immediately won accreditation for their film, Pieces which opened the door for them to direct, act in, and produce a variety of projects, bringing them well-deserved praise. In their latest film You, Me and Dupree, writer Michael Le Seur collaborated with the brothers Russo in a narrative comedy casting some of Hollywood’s most beloved stars in hopes of a blockbuster. Newlyweds Carl (Matt Dillon) and Molly (Kate Hudson) Peterson return from a blissful honeymoon expecting to ease into their new couple life with simplicity and joy. Well, that is what Molly wanted! As fate would have it, after less than 24 hours of newlywed harmony Carl finds out that his best man, Randolf Dupree (Owen Wilson), had been fired from his job and evicted from his apartment while he was attending their wedding in Hawaii. Dupree works his sob story on good buddy, Carl. The Petersons comfort Dupree and invite him to stay with them a few nights, which turn into weeks. Carl and Molly are slowly forced to play the role of tough love parents in order to get Dupree on the path to responsible adulthood. Unfortunately, Dupree is clueless to their efforts and he causes grave havoc in the relationships of those he genuinely loves the most. Dupree’s self-absorption is absolutely deplorable but Carl and Molly never give up on him, their friend for life. As prominent film makers, the Russo brothers could have saved us all a little time and money if they had said no to this project. Their expertise should have been spent investing in a comedy with some intellectual stimulation instead of relying on the annoyingly raw humor from Dupree, the king of slackers. (Shauna K) Opening September 28, 2006 Brothers Todd and Jan Wolfhouse travel to Germany, their great grandmother’s homeland, to spread the ashes of their recently deceased grandfather across Oktoberfest. Within the famed Oktoberfest they find Beerfest, a secret international beer drinking competition that touts events such as Beer Pong, Quarters, and Das Boot. After suffering a humiliating defeat by their German cousins, Todd and Jan assemble a team for ‘training’ and vow to redeem themselves at the following year’s fest. Beerfest, directed by Jay Chandrasekhar, is slapstick comedy that is so wrong and stupid that some will find it funny in a juvenile way.
(Becky T) Opening September 28, 2006 Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) balances a demanding life between being an architect, toadying to his playboy boss (David Hasselhoff) listening to his wife (Kate Beckinsale) and taking the kids on vacation. His head is full; his nerves are raw. He wanders into the local Bed, Bath & Beyond to buy a remote for his TV, having accidentally almost poked out his eye via toy helicopter through using the wrong remote. In the “Beyond” department he meets Morty (Christopher Walken) who sells him a magic remote control. One click and he can turn off the sounds of his wife and dog, two clicks and he can fast forward from home to work without wasting time on shave, shower and traffic jams; three clicks and he can rewind to fill in the gaps from fast-forwarding. What begins as a relief and bit of fun becomes serious when he realizes that he has fast-forwarded and, therefore, missed his life. He is rich, successful, fat and old with no notion of how it happened. Sandler fans will not be disappointed; their man is in good form, flailing away as usual. I enjoyed the first 30 minutes but by the end, the jokes were repetitious (the dog and the toy duck), not funny (sleeping with multiple spouses’ brothers) and primitive (farting in the face of a comatose man). Also, it seems to have borrowed mightily from such films as Back to theFuture and Michael. The moral of the story, “to experience life consciously” is valid, but the film becomes slow and syrupy when trying to make this point in the end.
(Shauna K) Opening September 28, 2006 Stephane Miroux (Gael Garcia Bernal) returns to Paris, the home of his childhood, for a creative job which his Mother (Miou-Miou) organized for him. Soon after his return in the process of nearly getting crushed by a piano, Stephane meets his new neighbor, Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsburg) and her friend Zoe (Emma de Caunes). Stephane instantly fancies the vivacious Zoe, the bandager of his piano damaged hand. Only after he has slighted Stephanie does he realize he has much more in common with the more demure of the two. Stephane, who as his mother in the film puts it, inverts dreams and reality, falls deeper and deeper in love with Stephanie. As he tries to draw Stephanie into his world love and obsession become as blurred as Stephane’s dreams and reality. The Science of Sleep is a trippy ride through the often frantic and sometimes beautiful fantasy dream world of Stephane Miroux. The Science of Sleep is definitely not for everyone, however if you liked director Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Bjork video Human Behavior, you will probably also appreciate the similar style of his latest film. Stephane’s dream sphere is an incredibly visually stimulating universe full of exaggeration, minimization, cardboard cut outs and cellophane. The film skips back and forth between this dream world and reality with ever increasing frequency so that by the end the viewer has as hard a time distinguishing between the two as Stephane does. And actor Gael Garcia Bernal couldn’t be a better guide through this dream world. The Science of Sleep is as much an experience as a story.
(Becky T) Opening September 28, 2006 In his third film, Turkish director Kutlug Ataman portrays two girls living in Istanbul. One, Behiye, is expected to follow her mother’s example as long-suffering and silent servant to the men in the family. She rebels by applying to attend university and dying her hair bright red, as well as shouting at her brother and stealing his money. Handan is a blond sweetie-pie, an angel, with an extravagant and generous single mother, Leman. Behiye and Handan become friends. Behiye leaves home to hide out at Handan’s house; they go out with boys; they make plans to immigrate to a new country. Sometimes the high drama between them has no obvious purpose excerpt to portray exuberance and I thought, “Where is this film going?” In the end, it’s clear who is the stronger of the two. Rounding out this film about women is Behiye’s friend Cigdem who covers for her and Leman, (Hülya Avsar, the only actor my Turkish green grocer recognized in the press notes) who is comforted by her own girl friend when Mr. Rich Boy Friend exchanges her for a younger model. Based on a best seller by Perihan Magdens, the characters could be transported into other cultures, e.g., the U.S. where one girl would grow up in a fundamentalist Christian household and the other would be the daughter of Judy Garland. Thus you have a universal film as well as the opportunity to meet interesting new actors and see Istanbul. My advice to all women: live in a place where the front door has a peep-hole for easy monitoring.
(Karen P) Opening September 28, 2006 In his film World Trade Center, Academy award winning director Oliver Stone brings the events to life surrounding the fall of the structure’s twin towers on September 11, 2001. In Stone’s dramatic re-enactment which depicts the magnitude of the loss on that September day, he focuses on two authentic stories of survival and courage. Sergeant John McLoughlin (Nicholas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Pena), officers with the Port Authority Police Department (PAPD), were part of the first teams to respond to the twin towers situation. Twenty three year veteran, McLoughlin, had never experienced such bizarre misfortune and for the first time in his career, he had no plan up his sleeve to assist in saving lives. If any one man could quickly figure out a strategy it was McLoughlin. Therefore, swiftness to the scene would be essential for his assessment. Jimeno was one of the five volunteers who escorted McLoughlin into the underground shopping mall beneath the North Tower. Information evaluating the damage was sparse among the chaos except for a walkie-talkie blurb mentioning that the second tower had been hit. McLoughlin knew the structures like the back of his hand and figured going up was still their only option and gathered oxygen tanks from the PAPD storeroom. As the team headed toward the elevators the screeching metal sounds force them to reroute and head for the shafts between the two towers. Suddenly, the horrific noise and vibration of the falling building alerted McLoughlin to warn his men to run for their lives. Before they can even think about running, they are thrust into a metal maze twenty feet below the ground. Officers Christopher Amoroso and Antonio Rodrigues were lost. Dominik Pezzulo (Jay Hernandez) and Jimeno were alive, lying near each other. McLaughlin’s voice could be heard twenty feet below them. While Pezzulo was trying to free Jimeno, the impact of the crash from the second tower took his life and he died right in front of his team mate. McLoughlin and Jimeno worked to keep each other alive, hoping for a miracle. Stone’s narrative unforgettably relates the following twelve hours of their world below ground zero, the torment their families endured, and the amazing rescue involving ex-marine staff sergeant Dave Karnes (Michael Shannon). Jimeno and Mclaughlin are numbers 18 and 19 out of the twenty people who were rescued alive. They hope that the movie serves as a tribute to all who perished.
|
||||||||||||||
Cars 
Friends with Money 
Longing (Sehnsucht) 
Snakes on a Plane 
Water 
Earth from Above (Die Erde von oben) 
Perfume (Das Parfum) 
Brick 
Candy 
Oh, wie schön ist Panama 
Road to Guantánamo 
Vers le Sud (In den Süden) 
You, Me and Dupree (Ich, Du und der Andere) 
Beerfest (Bierfest) 
Click (Klick) 
The Science of Sleep (Anleitung zum Träumen, La Science des Reves) 
Two Girls from Istanbul (Iki genç kiz, Zwei Mädchen aus Istanbul) 
World Trade Center 
Questions?