The Guys

With all due respect, I don't think Mr. Olsson watched the same movie I did. It would appear that Mr. Olsson's "review" is more than a bit colored by his apparent anti-American sentiments.

I just finished watching this movie on cable television and I didn't see anything jingoistic or any 'patriotic crap' in the movie. What I *did* see took me back to my own experiences - time spent in the aftermath of 9/11/01 at Church and Vesey and attending more funerals and memorial services than I can count at this point.

I applaud everyone who made this film happen for giving us perhaps the most human film to come out of the events of that day.

(Incidentally, I do happen to be American by birth and a firefighter/paramedic by calling)

The film is good. It's thoughtful and poignant. The acting was well done and the directing made it as interesting as possible given the material (i.e. two people talking). Be warned that this movie is not your average mass-consumption media fare, and if your IQ is hovering around 100 or less you are better off renting an Adam Sandler or Jerry Bruckheimer movie.

The backdrop is 9/11 but you could take the two characters out of NY 2001 and dropped them into any similar tragedy in history. It is not a "US Propaganda" film as someone tried to state below. It is a film about two people having to cope with tragedy. One who was directly touched and one who was sitting on the sidelines wishing to be able to help out. On that level, on telling the brief story of two people who should never have met, it works very well.

Finally, to the person who said "If I were director, I would have ... had someone write a better script..." >>THE FILM IS BASED ON A TWO-PERSON PLAY!!!<< The above statement is as ignorant and mind-numbingly stupid as someone saying "I wish the director of Hamlet had someone write a better script with more fight scenes."

I have foregone watching this film for months as I feared it might be mawkish and far too US orientated. In the event I was surprised. This isn't a film specifically about 9/11 even though the deaths discussed in the movie are those of firefighters from the FDNY. It is more concerned with how major events of this nature can impinge themselves on everyone. Many years ago when I was living in Birmingham (UK) I can remember lying in bed one night, heavily pregnant, listening to the news of the Birmingham pub bombings. Like 9/11 this was an event (though considerably smaller in numbers of deaths and injuries)that reverberated through a community for many months afterwards and in some respects still remains a significant part of Birmingham's unique character. Grief is not something to be shaken off so lightly and it is this fact upon which the film centres. There is no laying of blame -no mention of terrorists. The film simply describes how the Fire Captain Nick Costello has to cope with his grief in order to communicate to writer Joan the humanity of these people and what they meant to him; so that he can give a fitting eulogy for them. As a member of the audience it was this element of reciprocity with such events that struck me so forcibly, and the feelings of hopelessness such incidents engender. As for the script in most part it was excellent and amazingly understated, though in my opinion Joan's internal dialogues were not necessary, we all knew how she felt from watching her reaction to Nick relating his feelings in both words and looks towards his lost men. That to one side, the acting is flawless throughout by both actors. This is a truly excellent film, a deeply moving essay on grief and mental trauma; in my mind I kept revisiting Wilfred Owen's letters home to his mother from the trenches during the First World War, strongly conscious of the eerie connection.

I almost never cry at movies, but Anthony LaPaglia had me tearing up all through this movie. I'm not a big fan of soppy platitudes about 9-11, but this movie was very touching. It dismissed a lot of the big-picture stuff in favour of the minutia of people's lives that make them worth knowing about. This is a story about humans, not heroes, which I found refreshing.

Sigourney Weaver is also very good, as usual.

My only complaint is that there were a few instances of repetition in the writing. I'm not sure if that was supposed to be deliberate, as in the character repeating himself out of angst and stress, or if it was bad script editing. I noticed it though because it was jarring, which means if it was supposed to be there, it wasn't handled expertly by the writer. That could have used some polishing.

Other than that, I thought this was a good movie, especially if you're a LaPaglia fan as I am.

As the story tells...its a film about a horrific accident in US history...But for a swedish guy like me.....and some other tens or tventie milions its a fake-patriotic crap movie....

Why is it always in these kinda stories....that everything must be so much hollywood....so much oh-my-good-where-great-buhu! Well....as a human movie its okej...as a us-propaganda film....its kinda like my behind...

Nice on the surface....but with some degree of crap in it....