By Ed Koch
“World Trade Center” (+)
Oliver Stone kept his promise and produced an immensely moving picture without introducing a political point of view into this film concerning the tragedy of 9/11. Knowing his politics, many believed he would use the movie to create a polemic bashing the United States and President Bush. Instead, he brilliantly recreated the tragedy and put politics aside.
The film is a docudrama based on the lives of two Port Authority Police Officers, Sgt. John McLoughlin (Nicholas Cage) and Officer Will Jimeno (Michael Pena), trapped under the rubble of a collapsed Twin Tower. McLoughlin and his wife, Donna (Maria Bello) have four children, and Jimeno’s wife, Allison (Maggie Gyllenhaal), is expecting their second child.The audience suffers along with the trapped men and their distraught families. A mysterious former marine, Dave Karnes (Michael Shannon), travels to New York to help with the rescue of the trapped individuals believing that God instructed him to do so.
Our country came together in response to the 9/11 catastrophe and tore itself apart when we went to war with Iraq. But that will be the basis for another movie. In the meanwhile, be sure to see this one.
“Factotum” (-)
This film relentlessly depicts the lives of individuals on skid row who are addicted to alcohol and make no attempt to improve their lives.
A man in his 40s, Henry (Matt Dillon), a hopeful writer who sends out stories but rarely checks his mail, moves from one menial job to another and can’t hold on to any of them. When he goes to his parents’ home for a respite, he is welcomed by his mother but thrown out by his dad. Jan (Lili Taylor) is obsessed with liquor and sex. She roams from bar to bar and from man to man. Laura (Marisa Tomei) is also one of Henry’s sex partners who in the world of drunks appears to be one step above Jan.
Matt Dillon and Lili Taylor are fine actors. I have long admired their work, especially Dillon’s recent role in “Crash” and his earlier performance as a youth in “The Flamingo Kid,” and Taylor’s spectacular role in the television show “Six Feet Under.” Marisa Tomei is also a good actress, but her role in this film adds little to the movie’s overall attraction.
At the end of the film I thought to myself, thank God I don’t like liquor (for social purposes I limit myself to wine). If you are interested in seeing some fine acting or want to immerse yourself in the study of alcoholism, you might want to see this movie. But if you are out for an evening of entertainment and pleasure, “Factotum” is not the film to see.
