The feelings that betray us...

Rating: 6/10 (26 May 2005)

We just get more and more disaster movies each year. Actually we don't give a damn about less than the half of them, but from time to time, a super production costing millions and we got to see it. Last year, "The Day After Tomorrow" was that super production.
These movies don't get as wild as this one. German director Roland Emmerich makes a big effort to improve his style each time he makes a new movie. The movies he directs are not always potentially prepared to be "art", but the man takes the job too seriously, and you can tell the movies are "his"; even when he doesn't write them. He commits completely and achieves visual levels beyond imagination. He takes care of little details, like not showing some computer animated wolves closely, so they look as real as possible.
Regretfully, I haven't seen any good movie under his direction. I never finished watching "The Patriot", though; and I was loving it. And yes, Emmerich's specialty is "disaster" films. There's a big dilemma with disaster films, because they try untiringly to mix action and, well, disaster, with emotion. I has worked for me with "Daylight", a movie that was for me a before and after disaster films (as one of Sylvester Stallone best performances). Why? Simply because its only cliché was the "disaster"; and that's for me the best compliment you can give a movie of this type.
Other recent "disaster" film was "Deep Impact"; and I admit I tended to laugh in the most dramatic moments of the film; because I couldn't feel for the one-dimensional character and I preferred them to die than to listen to them saying melodramatic shits in their final moments.
Now the thing is; Roland Emmerich may know a lot about disaster, but knows nothing about drama. As he has probably done before, he checks the book of clichés so he can provide some substance in what he does worse. What we get from him in this occasion is one weak father-son relationship, with separated marriages, a father that works constantly and doesn't have time for his son. Yet, when he father arrives late or forgets things, the boy forgives himThe boy loves him, and loves a girl, and has a friendAnd the three of them go to New York for a contest, but Jack is working with professor Rapson and discovers the new Ice Age is coming (and you know how it goes from that) In another ensemble cast with the stars of the moment, the father is called Jack Hall, and is played by Dennis Quaid; who has been climbing to the top since "The Rookie". I've heard he has been doing the same for a long time (although I was shocked by his performance in "Far From Heaven"), but even in his clichéd character with hero moments, he passes the acting test. The mother's name is Lucy, and Sela Ward gives her agility and emotion. Professor Rapson is in Ian Holm's skin, and Holm is bored; looking for money maybe.
The son is called Sam Hall, in the skin of Jake Gyllenhaal, coming as the best element of the film; with a lot of personality and charm to a role that as easy as the one he had. It's another big step in his short career. The girl, Laura, it's played by Emmy Rossum. She looks gorgeous and very natural. They are the ones that will stay with a bunch of other, few people (the "Survivors"), as the victims with no way out, and Sam's responsibility according to script is not more than saving them. Do the "Survivors" survive? What do you think? To accentuate things more, Emmerich supports the dramatic environment with pathetic but sweet moving music, set decorations, designs and cinematographyOnce said that, the movie looks beautiful, and the special effects are flawless; but maybe that's the only thing Emmerich can do without problems.
As we will see many years from now, the movie had to be set in New YorkThey just love to destroy those thingsThe Statue of Liberty, The Empire StateIf they are going to freeze a city, New York will be the first choice.
When the film ended and the credits were rolling, I wondered: If Roland Emmerich knows so much about disaster and nothing about dramaWhy doesn't he just destroys everything without leaving any trace of life? Then the screen was black.