The Guys

I was biased when I got to around seeing this film. The film is based on a play (a two person play also starring Weaver with different actors portraying the fire captain, including for a time, Bill Murray), which I saw in early 2002 in lower Manhattan -- not too far from the events discussed. I do not think where I live add too much to the viewing in most ways, but the locale, time period, and coziness of the medium did. The play felt just right. The movie was a bit off.

The material does transfer pretty well. It's simple story that takes place soon after the tragedy, a writer/resident of Manhattan trying to deal with the events like everyone else, a writer who is asked by a fire captain to help him write eight eulogies for his men that died that day. The leads are excellent. The core material powerful.

The medium, however, was film. This is dangerous sometimes when the source material comes from somewhere else, be it television or the stage. And, we saw this here -- a desire to use film, and not just have a filmed stage play. Part of this works -- collages of the writer on the train with her kids, walking, and so forth. All the same, some of it does not -- it is filler, her talking to a counterman, two fireman (truly extraneous, given the story), and so forth.

In fact, I think the movie is actually a bit shorter than the play ... it is only 87min with the opening, closing, and that filler material. I was perfectly fine with just the two actors, including a touching eulogy scene. And, the material felt a bit fresher on the stage as well. I was somewhat disappointed actually, though I still enjoyed it overall.

Maybe, it's like reading the book first ... but still, I think something is missing here.

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....

One of the most compelling ways to tell a story is to let it tell itself, without embellishment. In The Guys, Anne Nelson's story does just that.

The events of September 11, 2001 are a very volatile subject; Nelson's story stays focused on how to talk about firefighters lost in one engine company at the World Trade Center. It humanizes the event and the emotional aftershock and side steps everything else. Simpson skillfully blends voice-over, text, storytelling, simulated archive footage, along with traditional film-making, keeping the spirit of the original stage play intact. It would be easy to tell such a tale with force fed melodrama, but instead, the audience is allowed breathing room to process right along with the characters on the screen.

Through sheer providence a journalist, was asked to assist a Fire Department captain to write eight eulogies for men lost on September 11. It's all told primarily through La Paglia and Weaver, who both turn in solid performances. Weaver embodies everyone who is the voice of every thought ricocheting through the head of everyone who's not directly effected. La Paglia's delivers an understated but eloquent performance of a man who can't afford the luxury of his own grief; through La Paglia, we see struggling to find a voice for the unspeakable.

There is a lot to be said on the subject of September 11; this film is a reminder of perspective.

There would definitely be certain ways to "celebrate" the heroism of the firemen of the NY fire department in the events of 9/11. However, this is not the approach this film has chosen, it is merely a stage drama transferred to movies with very subtle means, certainly resting on dialog between Weaver as a supporting journalist and La Paglia, a fire commander literally fighting for words to tell the unspeakable for the eulogies of his men lost in WTC. This is by all means well told, just letting in a little "air" of movie means by showing video of what is told, opening the angles of events for the viewer, but never going to real action. This fits well and makes this movie a highly recommendable piece of work, worth to be watched and discussed about. I have trouble understanding, how an average of only 6.3 could be reached so far. This is definitely 8/10.