WTC View

This is SO worth seeing. I was hesitant, thinking it would be a big gloom-fest. But instead, I found myself very moved by a beautifully acted, written and photographed film. It really needs to be seen.

I was surprised to find out that the star, Michael Urie, is the bitchy gay assistant on Ugly Betty. He is such a versatile actor, that it's hard to believe it's the same person. I love the way the director chose to keep some of the staginess from the play. Usually this is not a good thing, but this film uses it to good effect, increasing the intimacy and immediacy of the story and performances.

Congratulations to the talented cast and everyone else involved!

Clearly adapted from a stage play, this low budget film avoids the crass sentiment of the big productions. It is now appearing on cable TV for a wide audience and will almost certainly gain wider attention.

The sound and feel of its location are exactly right, without ever focusing in on the eponymous site itself. Clever use of micro scenes accent the mood of the main character, whose internal anxiety is the true center of attention. And the acting of most of the walk-through characters adding dimension to that character's development shows that a good script and good direction can overcome lack of big-time experience.

What a great relief from the morbid sentimentality of most 9/11 stories! A real stunner. Must see.

Although I had moved a few miles north before the World Trade Center was attacked, and I didn't look down the Hudson River and see smoke where the towers used to be until after they'd both fallen, I was deeply shocked, and I grieved for them for at least ten years. It was the most painful experience of my adult life. I didn't know anyone who died there; I was grieving for the buildings, which had been there in the background of my life like an anchor I didn't know was so important until it was gone.

But those wounds finally healed, and seeing this movie now, in 2013, isn't as cathartic for me as it might have been when it first came out eight years ago, when my grief still seemed inconsolable. So for me, now, this is just a movie, and I respond to it as if it were about a subject that never affected me at all.

As a movie, it's better than I expected. Michael Urie and Elizabeth Kapplow are excellent as Eric and Josie, and the rest of the cast are good enough not to be distracting (except for Jeremy Beazlie's horrendous British accent). The direction is surprisingly good, which is unusual when a playwright adapts his own play to the screen and also directs it; that's almost always a formula for failure, but Sloan does it fairly well.

As a play, it's beautifully written, never predictable or trite, and I'm sure it was deeply moving when performed live in a theatre. Unfortunately, the transition to film could have been better. But that's a very hard transition to make, and nobody has EVER done it perfectly except Mike Nichols with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

So although I admired this movie a lot, I never really believed it, never got deeply involved in Eric's trauma, because I could never get past the knowledge that he was acting.

Stage acting and movie acting are very, very different; and this was a play performed for a camera instead of an audience: admirably done, but the stage-bound formality of both the writing and the acting kept me at a distance emotionally.

After viewing dozens of features and shorts at 2005's Newfest in New York City, 12 festival days climaxed for me at the screening of WTC View. The story of a gay man living 12 blocks from Ground Zero placing an ad in the Village Voice for a roommate to share his Soho apartment on Sept. 10, 2005, his respondents' and his reactions during the next few weeks plucked a string in this ex-New Yorker's soul that is still resonating as I write this.

Just like that fateful day of November 22, 1963, hardly any of us will forget what we were doing and where we were when we heard of 9/11. I was sitting with a now-deceased friend of mine in my Amsterdam canal house apartment when the phone rang not long after 3 pm Central European Time and a Dutch friend of mine told me to turn on CNN to see something incredible. And indeed, from 3000 miles away the shock and panic pierced me to the core. To relive a group of New Yorkers' own narratives and reactions was both purifying and heart-rending.

The individual stories of the characters in WTC View, each a personal and personalized vignette of how their lives had been changed on that fateful morning, death and survival intertwined, the New Yorker's coping strategy confronted by 'you can run but you can no longer hide', healthy reactions to sick jokes, all make this a film no one should miss.

Kudos especially for director Brian Sloan and actors Michael Urie and Nick Potenzieri as well as the rest of the players who had me laughing and crying from beginning to end.

I stumbled upon this movie somewhat randomly, as someone with a similar experience living in New York City and searching for roommates after 9/11, and had no idea anyone had ever made a film on this topic, and did enjoy and find commonality in a few brief moments and scenes. While I am straight, I went through much of the same emotional turmoil as the main character in my desperate search to find a roommate and continue my New York City life in the days and months following Sep 11. I ended up having to leave my apt, and began the first serious romantic relationship of my life in October 2001, an intensely passionate and largely dysfunctional relationship which ended horribly, yet nonetheless I will always love her dearly. In truth, we were both still grieving and dealing with these events in our own ways when we met, only weeks after these events, and if not for 9/11, we never would have met.

I still feel a lot of guilt over my anguish over the years and how Sep 11 affected me personally, because in comparison I was so fortunate compared to so many others who lost their lives, friends, loved ones, or suffered permanent health issues. But the emotional toll it took on all of those who lived through it directly, even those of us seemingly spared from direct loss, should not be overlooked. I am glad someone made a film about this. I only wish they had found better actors!

Unfortunately, the acting and directing are so bad that it's mostly hard to watch, as it takes away from the impact of the script (which isn't that bad and has some strong, cathartic moments). All the body language and interactions between the gay lead and his potential "roommates," were just "off", as if he had no idea how to relate to other straight or female actors. Even the way he interacted with his female best friend felt phony and forced. The only time the main actor seemed comfortable at all was during the gay scenes (nothing pornographic but definitely might be uncomfortable to some viewers), which I think says more about him as a bad actor than any statement about the film or events.