124 minutes of New York. 124 minutes of New York people. The great city and great people with great courage.
After 911, we all know the city has gone through and still going through a lot of pain and loss. Post-trauma syndrom is not a strange word any more. Some people choose to remember and move on. Some people choose to forget and move on. Some people, like Charlie Fineman in this movie, choose not to remember and linger in. He acts like nothing happened ever before. He acts like he is younger than teenager. He acts like, if by all means, a bit crazy to run away from the reality. Because the reality stinks: he lost his wife and three beautiful daughters on the airplane. He cuts off all the contact with anyone who could remind him of his late family members, but he got in touch with his old college roomate Alan Johnson, who is also going through difficult time with his wife. So these two guys become good friends and try to help each other to walk out.
If I ever try to write a script, I would think this is way too simple to capture love. Obviously, Mike Binder can do a much more profounding job. It’s powerful and yet subtle. Two bits most impressive. The beginning, Charlie rides on his e-scooter as a drifter in a big world from day to night with the lights coming and passing and fading along his sides. Camera is following up in all distances, sometimes close up and sometimes just losing the figure in darkness at the end of street with background music Graham Nash’s “Simple Man”. I think this is the best start ever in 2007. The climax, Charlie snaps on the court against his parents-in-law, who think he is a heartless person keeping denying the loss of wife and daughters. He goes back in the hall facing his parents-in-law with following words. “I don’t need to talk about her or look at pictures. Coz the truth is, a lot of times, I see her…on the street. I walk down the street. I see her in someone else’s face, clearer than any of the pictures you carry with you. I get that you are in pain. But you got each other. You got each other. And I’m the one who’s gotta see her and the girls all the time. Everywhere I go. I even see the dog. That’s how fucked up I still am. I look at a German shepherd, I see our goddamn poodle.” Then in tears not dropping, he goes up and kisses mother-in-law. “All right.” He steps in the lift. Short, straight-forward and sentimental. Just within the limit.
Adam Sandler, one Jewish movie actor, I always take him as a comedian for granted, delivered very convincing performance in this movie. Some part of the movie is how crazy Charlie acts in a normal world. He could easily fall into a comic trap but he didn’t. Instead, with all the background setting up and revealing character’s broken heart, he made it sadly funny.
The Who’s “Love, Reigh O’er Me” becomes a theme of this movie. Sony’s Shadows of Colossus becomes a theme game of this movie. But love and holding on what you believe are the theme of this movie. We may not say the L word often enough, but we do. Definitely. And that’s how we find our way out/in.
