9/11 As Movie Fodder

Both films seem like Hollywood capitalizing on our nation's morbid curiosity. Using special effects, dramatic storytelling, and New and Improved Ways for showing planes hitting buildings (or solid ground) -- I mean, I learned enough from the trailer.

I don't want to pay to relive the darkest day of my generation.

For this same reason, I sold my copy of Bruce Springsteen's The Rising. Yeah, I know, Springsteen fans out there want to throw rotten fruit in my general direction, and if I understood your fixation with that guy, maybe that would help me. But I don't. "Born To Run" falls on deaf ears and always has, and the older I get, the more I just don't get it. Too damn many instruments in there. I half expect Clarence Clemons to actually be playing a kitchen sink somehow. I digress.

The Rising was Springsteen's 9/11 album, written by "America's (Time Magazine-appointed) songwriter." We needed The Rising. Now, though, I don't want to put on an entire CD of music so that I can relive images conjured by songs such as "Empty Sky," "Lonesome Day," and the title track. "My City of Ruins," while powerful...well the whole damned album just feels like wallowing in misery now. I didn't need that, so I got rid of it. Grammy or no Grammy, I don't want it anymore.

To that end, we needed Denis Leary's wonderful "Rescue Me" show, which tells the story of dysfunctional New York City firefighters and their families in the aftermath of 9/11. But the show doesn't dwell on 9/11 so much as it dwells on where the characters are a few years later. That's interesting. That's engaging. For some reason, it doesn't feel like trash. It's actually redeemed Leary in my mind, seeing as he built his career by stealing the late Bill Hicks' standup jokes. Now all is forgiven. This feels important because Leary focuses on people (albeit fictional ones) recovering rather than events we've all seen over and over and never asked to see again.

That's where Reign Over Me enters.

Adam Sandler stars as a man who lost his family on 9/11 and still hasn't recovered. When a chance encounter with his old college roommate Alan (Cheadle) turns into a tenuous friendship, Sandler's character starts to heal.

Sandler is returning to the same muted kind of performance he gave in Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch Drunk Love, except from the looks of Reign Over Me, he's probably trumped his work for Anderson. Cheadle is an actor with serious chops as well.

Finally, you can't have a title directly referencing The Who's "Love Reign O'er Me" and not include the song. Rather than pull from Quadrophenia, the filmmakers drafted Pearl Jam to record a bone-chilling cover for the trailer. This is Eddie Vedder screaming, doing his best Roger Daltrey, and not nearly with Daltrey's (former) vocal range, but with just enough passion/anger/screaming to work. Say what you will about Pearl Jam -- but listen to the song with those preconceived notions aside. It's one of the most incredible things I've ever heard.

Finally, a 9/11 film that is necessary -- one that's important, and doesn't feel whorish. It's about a person's healing process, not the tragedy itself. That's why I'm interested, at least.