Very Interesting

Rating: 8/10 (30 April 2006)

It's not by any means a perfect film. However, it is touching, relevant, and educational, and it provides us with insight about the last hours of a group of people who fought to survive and prevent another disaster on 9/11/2001.
Its director does a masterful job for the first half of the film, as we are introduced to the key people of the day. We see how several organizations dealt with the events as they unfolded, and we wonder how some details were overlooked, other pieces didn't fall into place, and once in a while, you feel like yelling out loud: "what were they thinking?" or "how could that have happened?". The fact is that the movie, which at times feel spooky as if someone had been running a video tape on the plane itself is probably too intense for its own good. It tries very hard to portray what might have happened on the plane, and it does it with much intensity. Unfortunately, the personal connection level to anyone on the plane doesn't really exist. We really might never know if there was a leader among the passengers. We understand their desperation and the need to overcome the terrorists, but it is difficult to digest how they overcame their fears and pull together their resources.
It is a respectable effort, and it makes you wonder how it will match against the upcoming Oliver Stone effort. Still, it is an important film, and technically it's practically flawless.