Monday August 14, 2006 arts.michigandaily.com artspage@michigandaily.com ARe TSdlan~ilp By Jeffrey Bloomer Managing Editor Oliver Stone's "World Trade Cen- ter" is about devastation - physi- cal and emotional, internal and external, locally and abroad. It's World Trade also about hope, Center the remnants of which are slightly At the Showcase more difficult to and Quality 16 pick out, a con- Paramount sideration the filmmaker makes a last stab at recon- ciling with a conspicuous final voice- over. In many ways it's the first real Sept. 11 movie Hollywood has made, following a string of documentaries that first emerged just weeks after the attack and culminated last April with Paul Greengrass's "United 93," a movie so realist in tone and narrative intensity that it felt as if it was another ground-zero nonfiction account of the events, though it was cast primarily with professional actors. Like that film, "World Trade Cen- ter" is a fictionalized account based closely on actual events (the only sort of movie the industry is will- ing to take a risk on as of yet), but it's the first major film that deals with reaction on the ground among U officers who entered the site and the families they left behind. It's also the most commercially viable, cast with talent old and new - Nicolas Cage, Jay Hernandez, Maria Bello, Mag- gie Gyllenhaal, Michael Pena - and filmed stylishly with a mid-range budget. For some it will be a vital tale of heroism, for others an unnecessary chronicle of ongoing tragedy, but it is, by most accounts, an emotionally and historically honorable movie, carefully crafted with eyes narrowing on the story of two families of Port Authority officers trapped inside the trade center rubble. The officers are Will Jimeno (Pena) and John McLoughlin (Cage), two of the few remaining from their squad still alive after the first tower falls. They are stuck under the debris to varying degrees of injury, though nei- t THIS IS OUR LAST ISSUE FOR THE SUMMER. DON'T WORRY - WE'LL BE BACK SEPT. S. as the youthful Alexander the Great in Stone's "Alexander" and one of the children early in "Mystic River," makes the strongest impression as John's youngest son who refuses to- wait to find his father. Because the director is Oliver Stone - an explosive filmmaker as unabashed about his political life- blood as he is about his films' histori- cal revisionism - there is an added weight of controversy, though as Stone and many commentators have now said, he did not set out to make a political movie. And he didn't, but it would be easy to overstate how much that's true. This is very much the story of the two men, but there's a sequence, for example, that docu- ments worldwide reaction to news coverage of the attacks, a minor but telling montage that aims to dispel the notion that Sept. 11 happened only to the United States. There's also a subplot. involving a former Marine (Michael Shannon) who sees the aftermath of the attacks, suddenly reenlists and travels to the chaos at Ground Zero. Such digressions are Stone's mark, however slight, and he does make the film his own, even if it's not through the customarily vola- tile avenues. That's not to say Stone isn't under a certain level of unspoken restriction, because he is on a short leash here, at least in the eyes of most Americans. When he ends the film with (among other things) a reminder that citizens of 84 nations died that day, the dis- pleasure of many in the audience is audible, if not especially pronounced. Fiction with Sept. 11 as the backdrop for romance and familial tragedy and even murder mystery has been around for some time, but the Hollywood response is under a much greater microscope. Debate over the mer- its of the existence of "World Trade Center" will not end anytime soon, and it's only a matter of time before an incisive fictional film about the tragedy breaks through. But for now, it seems as if Stone's vision taps into the public consciousness at the right frequency, and that is both its great- est challenge and its most impressive accomplishment. Nicolas Cage stars as real-life Port Authority Officer John McLoughlin in "World Trade Center." WEI GHTf OF THE 'WORLD' STONE'S TAKE ON SEPT. 11 A SURPRISINGLY SOMBER TALE OF TWO FAMILIES ther seems likely to survive. As the formula inherent in this sort of story would dictate - and there is a for- mula here, if not one driving the story then one that determines what hap- pens onscreen and off - the families come into central play after the men are trapped, with John's wife Donna (Bello) and Will's wife Allison (Gyl- lenhaal) as the main focus. The domestic scenes are sometimes calm, sometimes anxious, sometimes devastating. They dominate the film both for practical reasons and for slyer emotional ones, because these are the people the audience knows and understands, and with whom it can most readily identify. The per- formances are for the most part rou- tine and effective, although the young Connor Paolo, best known for bit parts I Recently Graduated Masseuse Seeks to Expand Clientele Fully accredited and licensed Currently Offering Great Rates to First Time Customers ($5/HR basic package) Makes Home Calls Ergonomic Table Optional Heated Oil Treatment Provides Service to the Greater Ann Arbor Area Please Call Andrea @734.355.4846 i. IUniversity Reserve your apartment home for next year starting End ofr0u November, 200f check us out onlinefor prices, floor plans, and leasing information. Fully FrnisdAprtment He nd Wtricue it~eseIner ' "o N 5. 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