For a Stone movie, this was politically lightweight.

Rating: 7/10 (4 November 2006)

For a Stone movie, this was politically lightweight. It focused not on the forest but on the trees; specifically, a select sampling of the lives of those directly affected by the crash. It is an unabashed display of what it is to be human: how you can choose to give up or keep on fighting.
I have a confession to make: I didn't care about 9/11 the way the world did when it happened five years ago; I was too busy tending to my own personal 9/11 and was pretty much numb to everything else around me. World Trade Center isn't the sort of movie I would actively like to see; I'd rather see something lighter or more entertaining, but it has been a while since my own personal hell, so I decided it was time to care and start feeling again.
Seeing the grief, uncertainty and helplessness painfully unraveled on screen was therapeutic; some things happen beyond your control, no matter how well intentioned you may be. Some things you think would last forever, like the formidable looking Twin Towers, could crumble in an instant after all. When you think you have a big problem, the person next to you could be experiencing something much worse, and your pain pales in comparison.
Michael Peña's character Will quotes from, of all movies, G.I. Jane, "Pain is good; it means that you are alive." At the time, his Sgt. John (Nicolas Cage), who was crushed by debris worse than he was, could barely chuckle at this, but he had to be strong for his underling; their lives depended on it.
The movie works because it makes you FEEL. I'm glad that I finally got to soak it all in. After all, pain is something anyone can relate to; yes, even those that cause it will feel it some time, too.