DVD of the Week: World Trade Center

My DVD pick for this week is World Trade Center, Oliver Stone’s emotional and uplifting portrayal of two Port Authority police officers’ harrowing experiences on September 11th. The film was wrongly construed as controversial (largely because of the man at its helm), but it is truly a straightforward telling of Will Jimeno and John McLoughlin’s story. Stone is not exploiting a tragedy, but rather articulating a very specific story with the consent and detailed accounts of the real life men upon which he bases the film. These men are played with understated dignity by Michael Peña and Nicolas Cage both of whom are wonderful here. Cage is especially enjoyable due to his recent lack of good taste (The Wicker Man? Ghost Rider?). Also doing spectacular work here are Maria Bello and Maggie Gyllenhaal, two fabulous actresses who triumph when provided with the daunting tasking of portraying the anxious and grieving wives of two men who might never come home.

For those of you with a taste for featherweight cinema (which World Trade Center is most certainly not), this week also marks the release of one of the most brisk and efficient lightweight films of the year: The Devil Wears Prada. Its skill is in its direct, uncomplicated, and unpretentious demeanor. Its creators are completely aware that they are making something meant solely to be an enjoyable, humorous romp and rightly craft a fast paced and utterly silly film. Meryl Streep is bound to get yet another Oscar nomination for her work here as the cold and conniving Anna Wintour-esque editor of a fashion magazine and young actresses Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt shine with just as much luster in less demanding roles. If you need to see something with no depth of any kind, then this is about as well as you could possibly do this weekend.