Special effects extravaganza marred by doomsday politics

Rating: 7/10 (2 July 2004)

The typical disaster movie plays up our deepest fears and tries to balance them with human drama. At one minute people are running for their lives, the next they're cowered together, trying to outlast Mother Nature's fury.
The elements are usually in place for a good story, but filmmakers tend to overdo the human aspects and end up making the movie melodramatic. "The Day After Tomorrow" is certainly no exception, but thankfully the ultra-goofy dialogue that sunk NBC's recent disaster telepic "10.5" is mercifully kept to a minimum. Instead we have just a big, dumb action movie that's easy on the brain and filled with lots of visual treats.
Nature is a harsh mistress, and it seems she had enough of our selfishness. Scientist Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) specializes in studying the climate patterns of the Earth, and has detected what might be the first traces of a major shift in the temperature of the planet due to global warming. His statements are of course met with skepticism by the American government, particularly by Vice-President Becker (Kenneth Welsh, who looks too much like Dick Cheney for it to be a coincidence).
Hall gets a sympathetic listener in Terry Rapson (Ian Holm) a fellow climatologist studying ocean temperatures. When his ominous warnings start to come true, Hall is forced to accept that the world may be heading for another ice age. Meanwhile, Hall's son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) is in New York at an academic competition, which is in the path of a massive tidal wave that threatens to flood the city.
"The Day After Tomorrow" is certainly loaded with some powerful images. Tornadoes destroy downtown Los Angeles, waters flood New York and then the city becomes a frozen tundra, and in one deliciously ironic moment thousands of Americans illegally cross the Rio Grande to sneak into Mexico.
It is a well-intentioned film, but like all "message-driven" movies its reasoning is absolute and the main characters are either fall into two camps: the noble idealists and the cynical curmudgeons.
It's been six years since the last time director Roland Emmerich destroyed New York, and kudos to him for managing to do it again with flare. He directs the disaster scenes with a seasoned professionalism, making them both intense and frightening, and he thankfully manages to downplay the melodrama so it doesn't come off annoying.
Quaid is the anchor that keeps this film together, and his performance as Hall is nicely even-keeled. He manages to almost make the conflict in this film believable, but he's still saddled with goofy emotional baggage. His estrangement with his son (a typical plot device in disaster films) is too ill-conceived and by-the-books to be powerful, as is the `heartwarming' decision of his wife (Sela Ward) to stay behind with a young cancer patient in the middle of a blizzard.
Gyllenhaal turns in a nice performance as Sam, playing the survivor who, to the screenplay's credit, manages to use reason instead of self-righteous bullheadedness, though he still does a few stupid things as well. It's still a nice star turn for the young actor, and he pulls it off without insulting our intelligence too bad.
But "The Day After Tomorrow" ultimately suffers from the major problems evident in the disaster genre. Its politics are goofy, the special effects outweigh the human drama and most notably its views on social Darwinism are hypocritical at best.
The movie suggests mankind should just accept that in catastrophes there's going to be massive casualties that people can do nothing to stop, but at the same time every attempt by the heroes to save the ones they care about, no matter how foolish a long shot it may be, is always smiled upon. Only in a disaster movie could a selfish decision such as leaving behind millions of people who need your help to seek out one's son be construed as altruistic and noble.
The science of the film is of course far-fetched to say the least, suggesting a major world-wide climate change could occur within a few weeks. The fact is global warming still remains a touchy subject, one that can either be proven or disproven with different data. Plus it's always disheartening to see a movie use a straw man approach to discredit opposing viewpoints on the issue by making them come from the mouths of people driven by that dependable goal of every movie villain -- money.
"The Day After Tomorrow" comes with controversy already built on the issue of global warming, but it's doubtful this movie will change many opinions. It certainly is a well made film with great special effects and likable main characters, but like all disaster movies it tries to scare people into submission. You better change your ways, or THIS could happen to you.
Still, despite the shortcomings of the film itself, it is an powerful reminder that no matter what your thoughts on the greenhouse effect, the fact remains that mankind is completely at the mercy of nature. It's sobering to be reminded that despite our advances throughout the centuries, at any moment disaster can strike and render all our accomplishments moot.
7 out of 10 stars. The movie is good for what it is, but please, less complaining about the evils of technology only to use that same technology when the survivors need it.