Safe at Ground Zero

When the news first arrived that firebrand director Oliver Stone was set to make a film about the events of Sept. 11, I was intrigued. While Stone’s notorious penchant for using narrative fancy when approaching historical facts inevitably courted controversy, the debates that ensued were always enlightening and informative in their own right.

With the release of World Trade Center, the only intrigue left to explore is when exactly did the pod people replace Oliver Stone with Ron Howard? WTC is Howardly in its tendency to shy away from any detail that might imply dangerous thought. Because after all, it’s just good ol’ Opie delivering a slice of cinematic apple pie fresh from Aunt Bea’s oven.

So with all traces of any element that might incite controversy, what we are left with is a well-crafted recap of the events surrounding the day, portrayed from the perspective of Port Authority patrol Sgt. John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage), who, after the collision of the first plane, rushes with his colleagues into Tower One and is trapped in the ensuing collapse with fellow officer Will Jimeno (Michael Peña).

The first act is exceptional, a near-verité approach that really seems to convey the palpable horror and terror of the events. But once the building collapses around Cage and Peña, the film slowly becomes yet another exercise in household melodrama as the wives wait for word of the husbands’ fate and inevitable rescue. It is an exercise completely lacking in suspense, in that it has been well-promoted that this “inspiring true-life story” has McLoughlin and Jimeno among the last men rescued from the rubble.

The closest Stone gets to seeming to have a point other than the heroism of the date is the worldwide unification that came about during the aftermath. Other than that, I did get all misty a couple of times toward the end, so the film is effective in what it tries to do. It’s a very well-made movie, albeit one that reduces 9/11 to the perspective of a couple of men waiting to be rescued, and their nail-biting wives.