It's not too early...

Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" opens today. I was never one of those who wondered if it was "too early." I don't think it's ever too early to make a serious work of art about any tragedy. Television, newspapers, radio reports, books and, now, the web can tell us many facts, tales of heroics and harrowing stories but films have a place, too. Both major films about 9/11 have, in fact, been a little shy - neither ventured into pure fiction. In "United 93," Paul Greengrass did a minute-by-minute attempt to recreate the flight and the FAA and the military's reaction to the attacks on the World Trade Center. And now, Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" tells the story of a handful of Port Authority Police officers who went to the towers that day not really understanding what they were facing.

I wish Stone had narrowed the scope even more; just be in the building with one officer and with his family outside trying to find out whether their loved one still lives or whether he was crushed in teh collapsing towers. Instead, Stone follows two families and frequently goes on little asides to incorporate someone from Wisconsin, a woman waiting for her son in the hospital, a former medic who kicked a drug habit and so on. Stone doesn't know how to seamlessly slide these stories into view and out as a director like Altman does. He wants everyone to get their monologue in and it detracts from where the spotlight should be: on Maggie Gyllenhaal's grieving wife or a barely recognizable Maria Bello as a perfect suburban wife or Michael Pena's rambunctious rookie.

That said, Stone does manage to build an unbearable amount of suspense and tension. It's not as skillful a film as "United 93" but it brings the pain of two families to life as that first unimaginable 24 hours passed on that Tuesday.

My favorite scene takes place in Gyllenhaal's house. As she frantically chatters and rages at the police who don't know whether her husband is alive or dead, her mother tries to do what mothers do: give comfort to her daughter. After Gyllenhaal leaps up from the family table refusing to eat anything, her mother trails her and plaintively says, "I could make up some macaroni..." Who ever thought that Oliver Stone could perfectly capture such a painful and strangely heartwarming domestic moment?

The third 9/11 movie is "The Great New Wonderful" now playing at the Parkway. It also stars Maggy Gilenhall. This film never mentions 9/11 and there is only an implied connection to the event, which happened a year before, but we know that all the major characters were deeply affected and we see some of the results here. It's a very subtle, psychological movie. Very effective are the occassional shots of a single airliner flying above.