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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 occasional intercut of fire department surveillance camera footage isn't exactly making the most of the cinema medium.
The Guys accurately reflects all the helplessness and directionless determination of those unreal days.
If you want an idea of what New York was like in the immediate days after 9/11, here you go.
Weaver, LaPaglia and director Simpson have little problem keeping us involved as they grapple with conflicting feelings in the ways nearly all Americans did.
[An example of our instinct to] moderate collective tragedies into easily-digested cud for bovine mastication on the Oprah show.
Besides the fact that it's about 9/11, it's also an effective film because you learn something about the lives of the firemen who are willing to lay down their lives for our safety, which was true long before the year 2001
What makes the movie work — to an admittedly limited extent — is the commitment of two genuinely engaging performers. Weaver and LaPaglia are both excellent, in the kind of low-key way that allows us to forget that they are actually movie folk.
One of those rare and exemplary motion pictures that is likely to make audiences of strangers want to hold hands.
If anyone needs reminding of those profound post-9/11 feelings, now or later, The Guys will be there to do it.
The sobriety of the play has been preserved at the expense of the movie.
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