Karate Kid goes to the 'hood, yo.

Rating: 7/10 (10 September 2002)

I had the opportunity to attend the first public screening of '8 Mile' at the Toronto Film Festival. It was introduced by director Curtis Hanson as a "work in progress", and was attended by a large contingent of Hollywood power-broker and film-executive types, all of whom I'm sure were curious to witness the outcome of the movie and gage the audience's reaction. Despite the director's caveat that the film didn't yet have final sound or picture, it was for all intensive purposes finished. And the result? A decent, if highly manipulative and incredibly formulaic movie. To Hanson's credit, the direction of the movie is skilled, and it rarely imposes itself on the flow of the narrative. As is his style, he rejects wacky angles and pretentious blocking and simply allows the characters to tell the story. And what about those characters? Well, despite all the public hand-wringing and worrying that Eminem has been doing about the quality of his performance, he is actually quite good. The real surprise isn't his acting ability, which is fine, but the extent to which he allows the film to grind down his badboy edges. Hardcore fans who are expecting Eminem in all his lewd, violent, shocking, homophobic, misogynistic glory simply won't find him here. Instead, we get to see Eminem as a caring brother, decent son, hard-worker, loyal friend, and a brave guardian of the rights of his female and gay co-workers. In fact, Eminem's character has so many wonderful virtues, the occasional angry or violent outbursts he has feel almost saintly. It's all more than a bit disingenuous. For Eminem the rapper, this is somewhat risky proposition, because in discarding his real-life thug image in favor of the role of virtuous hero, he may ingratiate himself to a legion of new fans who like his sensitive side, but he may just as easily end up compromising the well-cultivated bad-ass persona that has led to his success. That's because in terms of pure rawness, 8 Mile is closer to a Disney flick than it is to one by Harmony Korine. But then again, as a giant love letter to himself, '8 Mile' was bound to feel more like a fluff piece than a candid window into his life. It portrays him as a persecuted, mythical hero type who has to overcome insurmountable obstacles in order to transcend his miserable, squalid circumstances. But somehow, it just doesn't seems consistent with his own personality, nor does it make for a very compelling or truthful film. In fact, the script mirrors manipulative crowd-pleasers like Karate Kid and Bloodsport so closely, it feels like they've simply dropped the template onto Eminem's life, inserted rap contests instead of Martial arts, and voila, you have instant mass appeal. 8 Mile is competently executed adolescent fare that is designed to capitalize on the current popularity of a modern icon using a well-trodden formula. As a film, it is both well-produced and unoriginal. Which would be quite consistent with his music, I suppose.