Fair But Not Great

Rating: 3/10 (24 August 2006)

This film generally met my expectations, but didn't strike me as well as it might have for the following reasons:
1) The FAA and military dispatch center scenes demonstrating the early confusion on the ground were overly drawn out. So were the scenes of the terrorists in their seats wondering when to strike. Those could have been distilled down and their relevance could have been made just as forcefully. Even if there was some semblance of trying to stay true the actual timelines of those two aspects, and to whatever extent they had to be compressed to fit the film's 91 minutes, there just seemed to be far too much of both.
2) I would have replaced the monotony of those minutes with scenes showing the other ends of the passengers' final phone calls. In particular, I would have wanted to see and hear the call received by Lisa Jefferson, a cellular company's customer center supervisor, who was in contact with Todd Beamer. She was interviewed extensively by the news media once the event ended and the facts were known, so portraying her on screen either by herself or an actress could be deemed "old news." However, if writer//director Paul Greengrass were to prepare a complete a docudrama for future generations, showing her significance and including her actual words could have added much to the context. The same can be said about the loved ones, friends and even voicemail devices on the ground that other passengers reached.
3) Todd Beamer's iconic statement of bravery on behalf of all the other passengers, "Let's Roll!", which I had expected to be treated as a resounding call to heroism, was handled almost as an under-the-breath throwaway line. He might have really said it the way it was ultimately shown, but it called for more of a "Hollywood moment."
4) Among the epilogue's titles, I was left with a quite unexpected negative reaction because it seemed wholly unfair for Greengrass to mention the lack of effective military air accompaniment, thereby implying a sense of ineptness. There was no useful purpose served by such "Monday morning quarterbacking." Had armed military aircraft successfully been scrambled, obtained positions alongside UAL 93 and brought the aircraft down, we as a nation would search our souls for generations about whether the right decisions were made and if the right actions were taken.
On a positive note, Greengrass deserves credit for making this very good decision: Abundant casting of the actual people who were doing their best on the ground under enormous unprecedented pressure. It was a definite plus. After all, who could convey their words, actions and states of mind better?