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The Guys (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:61
Fresh:44
Rotten:17
Average Rating:6.4/10
Consensus: A moving tribute.
Runtime: 85 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: After the 9-11 tragedy the New York Theatre community was reeling and trying to find a way to respond to the horrific event with equal parts respect and reverence. In Tribeca, located blocks away... After the 9-11 tragedy the New York Theatre community was reeling and trying to find a way to respond to the horrific event with equal parts respect and reverence. In Tribeca, located blocks away from Ground Zero, Manhattan Flea Theater's Artistic Director, Jim Simpson, decided to commission a play from his friend Anne Nelson, a Columbia School of Journalism professor, after hearing her true story of meeting with a New York City Fire Captain to help him write eulogies for his fallen fire fighters. Her story became THE GUYS, which has now been adapted and directed by Simpson for the big screen and stars Sigourney Weaver (Simpson's wife) as Joan, a freelance journalist living and working in Manhattan during the days following September 11th. Joan is horrified by the tragedy, but feels like an incapable bystander, until she meets Nick (Anthony LaPaglia) a veteran New York City Fire Captain who must speak at numerous memorial services for his fallen men. Paralyzed by grief, the big-hearted blue-collar hero is incapable of expressing his true feelings until Joan begins to carefully elicit touching stories and anecdotes from him. Joan sensitively responds to Nick's colorful and mournful memories and slowly the very real human lives of his firefighters begin to take the shape of the eulogies he must deliver. Together, the two New Yorkers, affected by September 11th in very different ways, comfort and heal each other in this very personal and moving tribute to the fallen heroes of 9-11. [More]
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Anthony LaPaglia
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Anthony LaPaglia
Director: Jim Simpson
Director: Jim Simpson
Producer: Jason Kliot, Joana Vicente
Studio: Focus Features
Reviews for The Guys
The sobriety of the play has been preserved at the expense of the movie.
At times THE GUYS taps into some powerful emotions, but this kind of material is more effective on stage. It's not a motion picture; it's an utterly static picture.
No one can doubt the filmmakers' motives, but The Guys still feels counterproductive.
Watching the film is like reading a Times Portrait of Grief that keeps shifting focus to the journalist who wrote it.
However clever Nelson has been in providing variation within the confines of her structure and staging, the question remains whether this should, indeed, have been presented as a theatrical release.
The occasional intercut of fire department surveillance camera footage isn't exactly making the most of the cinema medium.
...pays tribute to heroes the way Julia Roberts hands out awards--with phony humility barely camouflaging grotesque narcissism.
Upper West Sidey exercise in narcissism and self-congratulation disguised as a tribute.
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