People leaping from hundreds of feet in the air from a burning building to end it all, clouds of dust so thick you could cut them with a knife, human beings obliterated into bone fragments - not to sound overly dramatic or anything, but this is the 9/11 that took the whole world by surprise. Being Canadian I was nowhere near the Twin Towers, but my uncle had done business with people who are now deceased. Even today he says it was a total shock to turn on the television here in Canada and see the buildings he had visited in the past just sinking into the ground like that. So, it must've been completely horrible and ultimately quite an emotional experience for somebody actually living near the towers to pick up the pieces - but you wouldn't know it from this film.
It introduces us to a young man who lost his roommate, a man he admittedly never really took the time to get to intimately know, in the World Trade Center attacks. He lives in an apartment right near where the towers had been, and although he won't admit it, it deeply bothers him and he often shows signs of severe PTSD. While this all could've made for a terrific testament to resilience and hope, unfortunately I found that the film felt sort of dry. The acting was on par with my high school drama class, with dialogue that often felt forced and fake. We are subjected to many corny jokes, a kissing scene which seemed very acted-out rather than romantic, and a lot of odd ranting from Eric himself which often didn't even have anything to do with the story at hand. I would say that the best scene this film has to offer, the scene which made the film completely worth watching, came from the monologue of a dissatisfied "number-cruncher" who had been trapped in one of the elevators of the towers and who finds himself telling Eric the horror of seeing suicides from the North Tower falling onto the ground right beside him from the top floors. Very disturbing and sad, but an excellent acting job nonetheless.
Now, to be fair, I can understand why film footage from 9/11 wasn't featured, and why the more horrific moments of the incident weren't brought up a lot. To dwell on it directly may have come across as gory and tasteless, an angle which I don't think the filmmakers were going for, and a lot of the footage of the Twin Towers is not in the public domain. That being said, seeing as the film is about 9/11, one would think that footage of the towers, not graphic footage but just general footage, would be featured in some way. We get a few photographs of police cars and memorial tributes, but that's about it. This hinders the film in some ways, mainly because to truly feel Eric's pain as a character, the audience watching the film has to understand the severity of what he went through, and you don't really get that from the same hour-long set of his small apartment building. In the end, he is shown to have overcome his trauma and grief, and that's inspiring, but we then get his friend, Josie, talking about 9/11 with such nonchalance that it appears as though neither character ever cared in the first place. It's like, oh yeah, right, they killed your roommate Eric, whatever, let's keep packing up these boxes before your boyfriend shows up. I mean, I could definitely understand Eric and Josie eventually regaining a sense of normalcy, but still, to discuss a dead friend so casually like that just didn't seem real. Josie herself was quite annoying as a character. Her voice was loud (it sounded like her actress was shouting every line), and her constant badgering of Eric to call that special 1-800 number for psychological help, it was just grating in a way. She wasn't suggesting it, she was pushing it. For Eric's supposed best friend, she wasn't very friendly at all.
On the bright side, this film has its moments. It's not too morbid or too off-beat, it isn't overly vulgar or crass in any way, and its general theme of finding closure was a good one. It's not bad and it's definitely worth having a look at.
It introduces us to a young man who lost his roommate, a man he admittedly never really took the time to get to intimately know, in the World Trade Center attacks. He lives in an apartment right near where the towers had been, and although he won't admit it, it deeply bothers him and he often shows signs of severe PTSD. While this all could've made for a terrific testament to resilience and hope, unfortunately I found that the film felt sort of dry. The acting was on par with my high school drama class, with dialogue that often felt forced and fake. We are subjected to many corny jokes, a kissing scene which seemed very acted-out rather than romantic, and a lot of odd ranting from Eric himself which often didn't even have anything to do with the story at hand. I would say that the best scene this film has to offer, the scene which made the film completely worth watching, came from the monologue of a dissatisfied "number-cruncher" who had been trapped in one of the elevators of the towers and who finds himself telling Eric the horror of seeing suicides from the North Tower falling onto the ground right beside him from the top floors. Very disturbing and sad, but an excellent acting job nonetheless.
Now, to be fair, I can understand why film footage from 9/11 wasn't featured, and why the more horrific moments of the incident weren't brought up a lot. To dwell on it directly may have come across as gory and tasteless, an angle which I don't think the filmmakers were going for, and a lot of the footage of the Twin Towers is not in the public domain. That being said, seeing as the film is about 9/11, one would think that footage of the towers, not graphic footage but just general footage, would be featured in some way. We get a few photographs of police cars and memorial tributes, but that's about it. This hinders the film in some ways, mainly because to truly feel Eric's pain as a character, the audience watching the film has to understand the severity of what he went through, and you don't really get that from the same hour-long set of his small apartment building. In the end, he is shown to have overcome his trauma and grief, and that's inspiring, but we then get his friend, Josie, talking about 9/11 with such nonchalance that it appears as though neither character ever cared in the first place. It's like, oh yeah, right, they killed your roommate Eric, whatever, let's keep packing up these boxes before your boyfriend shows up. I mean, I could definitely understand Eric and Josie eventually regaining a sense of normalcy, but still, to discuss a dead friend so casually like that just didn't seem real. Josie herself was quite annoying as a character. Her voice was loud (it sounded like her actress was shouting every line), and her constant badgering of Eric to call that special 1-800 number for psychological help, it was just grating in a way. She wasn't suggesting it, she was pushing it. For Eric's supposed best friend, she wasn't very friendly at all.
On the bright side, this film has its moments. It's not too morbid or too off-beat, it isn't overly vulgar or crass in any way, and its general theme of finding closure was a good one. It's not bad and it's definitely worth having a look at.