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'World Trade Center'

By Andrew Brink

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In the days following Sept. 11, 2001, a co-worker of mine became outraged at the nation's media for publishing pictures of people falling out of the World Trade Center's north tower. She refused to believe that anyone would jump to a certain death, no matter what the circumstance. These images just couldn't be true. After two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center, after both north and south towers collapsed, after a plane hit the Pentagon, and another crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, her limit - like most people's - for trying to understand the magnitude of this catastrophe was beyond the breaking point, having already been stretched suddenly to new and painful dimensions.

Nearly five years later comes Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center," and I thought of my co-worker's indignant disbelief as the film ended. Directed by Stone and scripted by newcomer Andrea Berloff, the film tells the story of Port Authority policemen John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno, who are literally crushed by the World Trade Center and yet survive. If images of people falling from the towers signify the absolute worst of that day, then the astounding rescue of McLoughlin and Jimeno represents the only sliver of a happy ending that can be gleaned from such prodigious tragedy. This is a story my co-worker would believe; this is a story that Hollywood is ready to tell.

In a recent interview, Stone described the film as "a dramatic movie about these people who are trapped." And with few exceptions, the movie is strictly about two men buried beneath 20 feet of concrete and steel. The film's striking opening shots of a waking New York City and a sparkling Hudson serve as a generous poem allowing the audience to reflect on what they were doing that morning. And the build-up to the destruction of the north and south towers is tastefully muted. Where much could have been invested in recreating the impact of the planes into the World Trade Center, we instead see only a shadow of an airliner moving through the skyline. The following impact is heard rather than seen, which places the audience on equal footing with the citizens of New York as confusion sets in.

When McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and Jimeno (Michael Pena) arrive at the World Trade Center to respond to the crisis, they are barely suited up for rescue before they are suddenly buried alive. When the dust settles, the two men, unable to see one another, talk their way through pain and a biting desire to simply sleep and fade away. These scenes alternate with the story of the men's wives, Donna McLoughlin (Maria Bello) and Allison Jimeno (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and their families as they journey from hoping that their husbands were clear of the imploding towers to exploring all the painful scenarios of a future without them.

The real-life McLoughlin and Jimeno families are listed as crewmembers on the film, and Berloff worked closely with them in crafting the script. Perhaps because of this collaboration, Cage, for once, escapes his own shadow to successfully inhabit the life of an everyday man. Likewise, Bello, Gyllenhaal and Pena are all sufficiently engaging, but break no new ground as actors. Perhaps it is because of the survivors close involvement with the film that many of the performances feel safe and hesitant, as if they do not want to fully explore the emotional depths that such a story readily provides out of respect for those individuals.

No matter how straightforward the narrative and acting, the eventual rescue of McLoughlin and Jimeno is truly gratifying. This film, in its close focus on the story of two policemen, may do too little for anyone wanting a more far-reaching examination of Sept. 11. But this film is not about complexity. It's about the simplicity of hope, which was a strong enough force to save the lives of two men that day. CV

'Accepted'

By Cole Smithey

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Steve Pink's directorial debut (he was the screenwriter on John Cusack's great black comedy "Grosse Point Blank") is a slight but punchy comedy of college-aged misfits that starts out strong before slipping down a greasy narrative slope into a dull third act that denies most of the laughs that preceded. High school senior Bartleby (the squeaky clean kid from the Mac commercials-Justin Long) is a clever guy whose marginal grades provoke rejection letters from every college he applies to. Desperate for validation and approval from his dismissive parents (Ann Cusack and Mark Derwin) Bartleby brainstorms into existence a phony Ohio college that accepts him as a student. Bartleby's increasingly ambitious college hoax necessitates that he and his fellow college reject pals lease and renovate a disused mental hospital to house the "South Harmon Institute of Technology," which he presents as a "sister college" to the actual Harmon College a few blocks away. A glitch in the bogus college's website unexpectedly attracts a hoard of slackers who install themselves in the dorm only campus. What started out as a fa�ade for learning becomes an alternative education hub with a swimming pool and a skateboard half-pipe where the curriculum is devised and taught by the students.

Because mainstream American counter-culture movies have barely existed for the past twenty-plus years, "Accepted" comes with a desperate gasp for oxygen. The comic foundation is sound but the film's execution stumbles because the screenwriters (Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, and Mark Perez) don't link enough witty dialogue to the film's spastic tone. The overall casting of novice actors contributes to the failure of the production.

Jerry Zucker's "Rock 'n Roll High School" (1979) is a good example of a similarly themed movie that turned the rebellion of academic underachievers into comic and musical wealth, thanks in part to that venerable punk band the Ramones. There's an inspired moment in "Accepted" when Bartleby jumps on stage with a band at a blowout party to take over singing duties for a version of the Ramones' anthem "Blitzkrieg Bop." Bartleby euphorically sings the famous lines, "They're forming in a straight line, They're going through a tight wind, The kids are losing their minds, Blitzkrieg Bop." It's a high point that connects the pent-up frustration of lost generations of college exiles to the underlying anger of the comedy.

Uncle Ben (Lewis Black - of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart") steals the movie as a fiercely blunt anti-authoritarian social renegade that Bartleby enlists as the Dean and sole faculty member of South Harmon Institute. Ben speaks the film's primary theme line when he says, "What is learning? It's paying attention. It's opening yourself up to this great big ball of &%$@ that we call life." Ben is the eccentric uncle of Bartleby's best friend Sherman (Jonah Hill) who suffers humiliating hazing rituals at the fraternity of his father and grandfather at the authentic South Harmon college. Sherman takes the brunt of the most jokes, but we never get enough of his personality to embrace him as the protagonist's alter ego.

"Accepted" falls short of its zany goal because it doesn't relate the relationships of its characters to their kooky behaviors. Bartleby's crony 'Hands' (Columbus Short) was a star high school football player before an injury sidelined him into creating African-inspired sculptures with surprisingly enormous phalluses. The art pieces are amusing by themselves, be we can't appreciate how they equate to the seemingly creative mind of their designer. It's just one example of how the story and its characters are kept in hermetic bubbles of comic potential that are never popped. In creating a complicated fib Bartleby finds his true calling when South Harmon Institute of Technology is accredited by the city. It's a happy moment that just isn't very funny. Rated PG-13, 92 mins. CV

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