You must be ready to see this ... or don't see it at all.

Rating: 5/10 (30 April 2006)

I chose to see this mostly because it seemed that the families, from what I've read, gave it their approval; so , in that spirit, I felt I was showing support for them though I have no idea if they get any of the profits from this film. I wish I hadn't seen it. I simply wasn't ready. I developed a huge headache and generally felt real distress as I watched. I'm not a headache person. I'm not a queasy person. I simply wasn't ready.
Is this a good film? That question is a very difficult one for me to answer. It feels like a hybrid: part documentary and part traditional film. As you all know by now real people played themselves, especially in the traffic control scenes, which, in conjunction with stripped down official sounding jargon and straightforward camera work, gave it the documentary feel. On the plane, it became a traditional film. But is it good? This merges with the question, "was it exploitive?" The filmmakers took liberties with character development. There was no traditional character development at all. Glimpes, but nothing more than that. They properly assumed that we knew the character and story lines of the most prominent passengers as portrayed by the media previously. Allowing for that assumption, the filmmakers essentially placed us amongst the passengers during the last 40 minutes of the film and let us directly observe their fear, their anger, their discovery, and their response. It was visceral, but, in my opinion, it wasn't because of craft, it was because of the painful memory of the actual event.
I think a good film , even if it feels dated when seen years later, is still felt by that latter-day audience on many levels, allowing for that film to be still recognized as a good film. I think that 20 years from now this film will be felt as if it were the equivalent of a TV movie of the week. Without the shared experienced that is present amongst today's audience, it won't have any emotional weight on it's own.
But for right now, this is deeply disturbing film that for some might be cathartic, for others might be interesting for the behind the scenes observation, and for other's might function as a satisfactory action/thriller film. But for me, it was simply too soon.
I so hope the families of these brave men and women have found some peace. I truly do.