The Guys (2002)
Starring Sigourney Weaver and Anthony LaPaglia
Directed by Jim Simpson
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***
"New York. My beautiful, gleaming, wounded city." So begins The Guys, likely one of (if not) the first film take on the 9/11 tragedy. As we near the tenth anniversary of this day that changed our country forever, I wanted to take a look at a cinematic take of the event. Taking place in the days immediately following that fateful Tuesday in 2001, The Guys (based on a play by Anne Nelson) focuses on an editor named Joan (Sigourney Weaver) who helps fire chief Nick Costello (Anthony LaPaglia) write eulogies for the members of his company that died that day.
Despite two very good performances including a particularly excellent and sometimes heartbreaking turn from Anthony LaPaglia's guilt-ridden fire chief Nick, the flick feels a little uneven. Nick's character arc is certainly touching and well-written, but the role of Joan is a much trickier one and it's here where The Guys falters. To me, Joan (who narrates the picture) is presented as being the heart of the film (and I'm not so sure that's a positive). Here is a New Yorker who, despite not knowing anyone who was closely affected by the attacks, was deeply affected by that day's events. By talking with Nick and doing what she does best -- writing -- she manages to express her feelings as well. While I fully accept and acknowledge that she is deserving of feeling grief, her pain ends up paling in comparison to that of Nick and I think the film attempts to place the two characters on an equal playing field in that department. I'm not making a judgment as to whether their respective grief should be equal or not, but if the film was attempting to try and state that (which in some ways, I think it was), it just doesn't succeed in showing us an equivalent grief in Joan. Bookending scenes with Joan spouting some odd thought probably worked very well on stage (and probably made the two characters more of an "equal"), but in the film, it just doesn't work.
The Guys isn't a bad film. In fact, I give it much credit for coming out so soon after the tragedy. It's a simple glimpse into the lives of two different New Yorkers days after the events of 9/11. Still, when that list of firefighters who gave their lives rolls by at the film's end, you can't help but get a little choked up even if the flick doesn't succeed on all levels.
Despite two very good performances including a particularly excellent and sometimes heartbreaking turn from Anthony LaPaglia's guilt-ridden fire chief Nick, the flick feels a little uneven. Nick's character arc is certainly touching and well-written, but the role of Joan is a much trickier one and it's here where The Guys falters. To me, Joan (who narrates the picture) is presented as being the heart of the film (and I'm not so sure that's a positive). Here is a New Yorker who, despite not knowing anyone who was closely affected by the attacks, was deeply affected by that day's events. By talking with Nick and doing what she does best -- writing -- she manages to express her feelings as well. While I fully accept and acknowledge that she is deserving of feeling grief, her pain ends up paling in comparison to that of Nick and I think the film attempts to place the two characters on an equal playing field in that department. I'm not making a judgment as to whether their respective grief should be equal or not, but if the film was attempting to try and state that (which in some ways, I think it was), it just doesn't succeed in showing us an equivalent grief in Joan. Bookending scenes with Joan spouting some odd thought probably worked very well on stage (and probably made the two characters more of an "equal"), but in the film, it just doesn't work.
The Guys isn't a bad film. In fact, I give it much credit for coming out so soon after the tragedy. It's a simple glimpse into the lives of two different New Yorkers days after the events of 9/11. Still, when that list of firefighters who gave their lives rolls by at the film's end, you can't help but get a little choked up even if the flick doesn't succeed on all levels.
The RyMickey Rating: C+
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