An interesting film about America's latest success story.

Rating: 9/10 (20 January 2003)

Even people who are not familiar with Eminem and his music (and, quite possibly, people who can't stand either of them) can enjoy 8 Mile because even though it is obviously a film based closely on his own life, it does not require any previous knowledge about him or his life or his music in order to understand and enjoy the film.

Eminem plays Jimmy Smith, Jr., a young white kid living in a trailer park in Detroit with his trashy mother and who aspires to succeed in the rap music industry. The thing to consider here is that it's already known that Smith is going to succeed, which is the only theory that I can come up with as to why they left out that last act, where he actually does succeed.

Rap music is unfortunately associated almost entirely with people who are p**sed off at the world, hence the fact that every rap star in the world is frowning with all his might on the cover of every CD. Given that, it may not have been a good idea to see Smith succeed and get a reason to smile at the end of the film, because a happy ending would cancel out the need for angry rap music. On the other hand, it is more than a little disappointing to see the movie build up for the whole time to the scene where Smith is finally successful in the underground battle, only to skulk out of there with the same mopy attitude that he had throughout the entire film.

Eminem is very successful in his role, even generating some early Oscar buzz (I was pretty impressed, but I'm not sure I'd go THAT far.) because he understands the material so well. He is basically playing himself, telling his own story, so he's had his whole life to think about this and he knows exactly what he wants his audience to see. He also avoids the fate of being yet another musician who turns to acting, only to release a film that often is catastrophic to the rest of their career. Britney Spears has recently made this mistake by performing in the hideous crapfest Crossroads. I think that the reason Eminem succeeds so well in his role is because he is not pretending to be someone else which, given the content of his music, is not something that he would probably be good at. Instead of a flailing musician trying out acting, 8 Mile instead comes across sort of like a film version of an autobiography.

Kim Basinger adds wonderfully to the film as Smith's mother, who's dating a guy the same age as her son and who reveals shocking sexual details to him, somehow hoping that he can give her advice. I loved Roger Ebert's counterargument to people who say that she's just too beautiful to play such a poor woman, saying in his review of 8 Mile that, given the amount of ugly people who live in huge houses, there should be no reason that a poor woman couldn't be beautiful. Brittany Murphy provides an interesting romantic interest, perfectly capturing the skanky nature that you would expect from the kind of person that her character is, but she is the second biggest loose end in the film, right after the fate of the main character. It is clear that she was sleeping with whoever she met that she felt would be the most successful, so obviously she and Jimmy can't make up and get back together at the end, although they exchange a look just after his victory at the battle that suggests that he either forgives her for what she did, or she has just changed her mind about who has the brightest future and is ready to come back and start having sex with him again.
Regardless, however, of these weaknesses, 8 Mile is an inspiring film that comes along at a time when an inspiring film is very much needed, among all the goofy action and cheesy junior high school crap that's pumped out in record quantities these days. It doesn't show how Eminem came to be the phenomenally successful rapper that he is today, but instead portrays a young kid from a poor neighborhood who focuses on a goal and achieves it, even in an area in which he is clearly an outsider.

As he says at the end of the title song, `You can do anything you set your mind to, man.'