The Nicolas Cage Roulette Challenge, Part 3

It’s been a while since my last entry in the N.C.R. Challenge for a reason. The first two films that came up, luckily, were the kind of goofy thrillers that Nicolas Cage is best known for: Seeking Justice and Trespass. So I was a little gobsmacked when I hit the wheel and this was what came up:

Oh.  Well then.

It took some time to get to the right place where I could watch the film, but I play by my own rules, so there's no skipping allowed.  Needless to say, it doesn't quite fit the profile for the N.C.R. Challenge.  It doesn't represent the Nicolas Cage of Face/Off and National Treasure, but a more serious Cage in a more serious film.

World Trade Center is not a particularly insightful film. It doesn’t say anything new about the attacks of September 11, 2001, nor does it intend to. It might seem odd that Oliver Stone would direct a staunchly apolitical film about one of the most politically inflammatory events in history, but it’s not out of character for him. He’s made films before that reduce a politically polarizing topic to emotional simplicity. Platoon: war is hell. Born on the Fourth of July: soldiers ought not to be punished for fighting an unjust war. He caught some flak for W, a film which didn’t back away from taking a political side but dared to portray the maligned President as a flawed human being rather than as a cartoon.

Like those films, World Trade Center is earnest from beginning to end. It’s a reverent tribute to those who, without a second thought, put themselves into danger on that Tuesday morning to rescue others. It doesn’t see the reasons for the attack or the destructive decisions that would result from it—it doesn’t even see the planes hit—rather, it only sees the men and women who were on the ground that day. They don’t have time to think about the big questions, and neither does the film.

It’s an easy route to take, but we never get the sense that Stone is merely mining the event for an emotional response. He’s respectful and honest, and his movie is genuine rather than maudlin.

It helps that the performances are measured and intricate, never rising to the histrionic levels that must have been tempting. Cage and Michael Peña, as two Port Authority police officers trapped in the rubble, are excellent anchors for the events of the film, and the scenes between them have a quiet resonance of love, loss and desperation. As the people above ground, Maria Bello, Donna Murphy, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Frank Whaley, and Viola Davis are believable faces of heartbreak, hope, and determination.

Stone admittedly does go overboard at times. A scene in which Peña has a vision of Christ is a little ridiculous. And it’s a rare movie in which Michael Shannon is the weak link, but his character of Marine Staff Sgt. Dave Karnes, a key figure in the rescue effort, is portrayed as too much of a superhero.

While World Trade Center is limited in its point of view of the attacks of 9/11, it tells a clear key side of the story that’s easy to tell, but needs to be told. It isn’t in line with the best 9/11 films that have been made: it’s not as bold as Paul Greengrass’s United 93, which was just as reverent but quietly political as well, nor is it as complex as Danny Leiner’s The Great New Wonderful, which portrayed a New York City still trembling in the aftermath. But unlike the worst (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close), it also carefully avoids sentiment and mawkishness. It boils the day down to this simplicity: when people were running out, good people ran in.

*** out of ****