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THE GUYS Send This Review to a Friend
The tragedy of 9/11 may be receding into history, but the emotional toll lingers. "The Guys," based on the play by Anne Nelson and now released commercially after being part of the latest new Films/New Directors series of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and MoMA, is powerful drama with heart. The acting by Sigourney Weaver and Anthony LaPaglia is so sensitive and affecting that one may come away deeply moved and appreciative of the feelings that have been so eloquently captured in this still timely drama.
True, there are those who may shy from more about the traumatic events, but those who do will be missing out on an uplifting experience that captures the humanity irrevocably connected to the losses. Those who survived are still trying to come to grips with those who didn't, and that is what this film is really about.
Nelson wrote the screenplay co-credited with Jim Simpson, who directed her play and now has directed the film version. LaPaglia plays Nick, a New York fire captain who has been tapped to give eulogies at services for his fallen comrades. But he is not a very articulate man, at least not for the purpose of stepping up to a mike and trying to make eloquent comments. A mutual friend puts him together with Joan, portrayed by Weaver, who is a journalist and nearly the entire film consists of their working together to get down the important aspects of the firemen's lives to help Nick fulfill his task.
The interview questions Joan poses and Nick's responses bit by bit complete the basic portraits, and through this process the firemen who died begin to live in our minds. We learn about their strengths and their shortcomings, as well as some of the humorous aspects remembered, and by the time we see Nick get up before a crowd and speak, he is quietly more confident and able to comment informatively and feelingly about his men. The result is wrenching, and in a sense offers a catharsis not only for Nick, but for all who have suffered losses directly or know some who have.
"The Guys" adheres closely to the intense conversations between the two and wisely avoids attempts to open the film up significantly. The closeness that develops between Joan and Nick benefits both. Nick is able to better come to grips with his guilt for surviving while others died, and Joan gets to feel more closely connected with a world she has known little about, the day to day lives of firemen and the random risks that they face.
"The Guys" is unflinching in its approach, which makes it an absorbing as well as an important work that merits great respect. A Focus Features release.
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