Tag: 9/11

COME FROM AWAY – Review

With all of the fun and frivolity of last weekend’s Labor Day holiday behind us, the nation turns its attention to an anniversary. But with this 20th remembrance, there will not be any cookouts or mattress sales. The attacks on September 11, 2001, are deeply etched in the minds of those who lived through it, with a collective “Where were you when…?” shorthand previously reserved for the deaths of celebrities or the moon landing. For those still skittish about attending public events and services, television, much as they did two decades ago, will have many specials and documentaries. But one streaming service, Apple TV+ will have an unusual tribute: a musical, a real honest-to-goodness Tony -Award-winning-Broadway musical. But how does that even work? Well, it’s not a tune-filled play of the actual attack, but rather a somehow charming story that emerged in its immediate aftermath. This tale is about a little town that opened its arms and hearts to strangers who have COME FROM AWAY.

This modern fable begins on that fateful morning, but not in the US. Rather, we’re transported north of the border in the Canadian province of Newfoundland (AKA “The Rock”) and its little town of 7,000, Gander. They’re the home of the largest airport hub in the country, though it’s fairly deserted and in need of repair since the newer aircraft have larger gas tanks and don’t need to stop and refuel there. Actually many think it will be torn down and plowed over. In the local donut shop the mayor and the head of the school bus drivers’ union squabble over a possible strike, when the police chief comes in with the horrific news from the south. Several dozen planes will be diverted to their crumbling airport, so shelters must be set up and food prepared. The play shifts back to the airline passengers as they wonder why their trip has been cut short. As the Gander natives welcome them, they turn their attention to the TV news reports. The travelers are stranded there while the FAA regroups and decides when to reopen the skies for flights. As the days pass, the visitors are touched by the kindness of their hosts as they desperately try to contact their loved ones. One anxious mother can’t reach her firefighter son. As romance blooms between a British passenger and his Texan seatmate, the stress unravels another long-term marriage. Much of the tension is eased when the locals stage a massive BBQ party and make their guests “Honorary Newfoundlanders” at the rec hall. Bonds are formed and friendships begin, but will everything be forgotten once the “birds” are back in the sky?

Much like the acclaimed recording of HAMILTON that Disney+ streamed last year, the filmmakers get us up close to this very talented and energetic ensemble. The accompanying musicians are right on the main stage on each side of the main action. And much like that other “hit’, the stage is sparse, with few decorative touches, save for a glowing “Tim Horton’s ” sign in the opening scene. Ditto for the props as various tables, benches, and kitchen chairs double and triple as airline seats and other modes of transport. Oh, and the performers in this superb ensemble assume several different roles in the course of the story. The same actor plays the head of the bus drivers’ union, one half of a bickering gay couple, and…President George W. Bush. There aren’t big costume changes to delineate the roles, aside from jackets, scarfs, and hats. It’s amazing how the troupe moves in unison. much like a well-oiled machine even in the most complex dance routines. Everyone has their moment to shine, though I was riveted particularly by Jenn Colella whose main character is one of the first female flight captains, Beverley Bass who relates her love of flying and later bemoans the use of those beautiful planes as bombs in her solo “Me and the Sky”. Oh, did I not mention the outstanding quality of those “toe-tapping’ tunes by Irene Sankoff and David Hein? Yes, they easily go from that soulful ballad to the rousing pub “sing-a-longs” like “Welcome to the Rock”. It’s been reported that the original plan was to film the show in the actual locations, but the pandemic nixed that notion. And it was the right move, as the prologue tells us, they were the only working theatre (for filming) during the covid shutdown, giving an extra electric charge to the eager audience. Of course, we get to see the cast receive their much-deserved applause, but we also are treated to wonderful photos of them meeting the real-life folks they recreated on stage. It’s the “icing on the cake’ to this enchanting ode to the joys that can spring from life’s darkest moments. And with all the turmoil swirling about us right now who wouldn’t want to be diverted to the cozy confines of Gander, whose exceeding friendly citizens encourage us all to COME FROM AWAY.

3.5 Out of 4

COME FROM AWAY streams exclusively on Apple TV+ beginning on Friday, September 10, 2021

THE MAURITANIAN – Review

Tahar Rahim as Mohamedou Slahi, a Mauritanian detainee at Guantanamo, in the drama THE MAURITANIAN. Photo courtesy of STX Films.

Golden Globe nominations went to Tahar Rahim and Jodie Foster for their excellent performances in the true-story Gitmo drama THE MAURITANIAN, in which Rahim plays a man detained for years at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba after being accused of being an Al Qaeda recruiter, and Foster plays the hard-nosed lawyer who insists that the Bush administration follow the rule of law, by charging either charging her client with a crime and giving him a trial or releasing him. Directed by Kevin Macdonald, best known for his film THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND, another fact-inspired film led by a remarkable performance, and is based on “Guantanamo Diary,” the bestselling memoir of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, the Mauritanian who was accused of recruiting for Al Qaeda and helping organize the 9/11 attack.

Tahar Rahim is the French-Algerian actor whose remarkable performance so riveted audiences in the international hit French crime thriller A PROPHET (“Un Prophete”). Rahim brings that same mix of crackling screen presence and charm to this role. Rahim gives a riveting performance that is perhaps better than the film itself, which sometimes strays into a stiff tone of self-aware significance, making it a less-sterling vehicle for Rahim’s sterling performance as the oddly charming, irrepressibly optimistic Mauritanian..

It is this surprising side of the real person – his likability and surprising positivity – in this fact-based story that drew producer Benedict Cumberbatch to the project. Cumberbatch also plays a role in the film, as the determined but morally-straight military prosecutor who is facing off against Jodie Foster’s courtroom argument for the defense. The real present-day Slahi is seen in a coda at the film’s end, singing along to a Bob Dylan song, in a not-to-be-missed extra.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Tahar Rahim) is arrested at a festive community celebration by authorities in his native North African country of Mauritanian, and then turned over to the U.S. government who believe he is a major recruiter for Al Qaeda. After being held in Gitmo for years without charge or trial, defense attorney Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster) and her assistant, a young lawyer named Teri Duncan (Shailene Woodley), offer to represent him, as a way to legally challenge the Bush administration’s violation of the rule-of-law against indefinite imprisonment without charges. Opposing them in court will be a gifted military prosecutor, Lt. Colonel Stuart Couch (Benedict Cumberbatch), who lost a friend aboard on the planes hijacked in 9/11. As both sides research the case, they uncover shocking facts and a cover-up about what is happening to prisoners at Gitmo.

The legal question that Jodie Foster’s lawyer Nancy Hollander is arguing in not Slahi’s guilt or innocence, but only his right to be charged and have a trial, something the Bush administration was reluctant to do as they tried to straddle the line of rules for prisoners or war and criminal cases, trying to carve out some third way for detainees. To the film’s credit, it never paints Slahi as entirely innocence of all involvement with Al Qaeda, although perhaps more through a family member, and seems unlikely to be the major Al Qaeda recruiter or 9/11 mastermind his interrogators want to believe he is. Also to the film’s credit, the filmmakers brought in the real people involved in this case as consultants and fact-checkers.

Foster’s Nancy Holland is a tough as nails, flinty character who loves the law and in completely uninterested in her client’s guilt. By contrast, Woodley’s Teri, her young assistant, is all emotion, and even blurts out her belief in Slahi’s innocence at their first meeting. Despite her focus only on the legal issue at hand, Hollander also grows to like the charming, quirky Slahi, who poetic view of life is hard to resist. Their legal opponent, Lt. Colonel Stuart Couch, is a brilliant attorney with a personal link to 9/11 but a deep faith and equally deep commitment to justice. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Couch with a passable Southern accent and brings out a dogged determination to uncover all the facts before bringing the case to the courtroom.

THE MAURITANIAN certainly has a worth premise, and seems to promise good courtroom drama too. Unfortunately, it takes a long time to get to that dramatic moment, which comes late in the film. That delay, and that the various groups are often seen in separate scenes, following their own trajectories: the lawyers researching the facts against a secretive administration the resists them both, and the prisoner enduring isolation, interrogation and then torture. The three separate story tracks makes it difficult for the drama to really catch fire, and the addition of a number of flashbacks also works against the drama really taking off. The film is at its best when it focuses on Rahim’s Slahi, coping with his isolation in heartbreaking scenes that recall prison dramas like PAPILLON, or scenes with the sharp-tongued, sharp-brained attorney Hollander, at work, or scenes with both Foster and Rahim together, of which there are too few. The scenes with Cumberbatch are also good, but we wish for more with him and Foster facing off.

THE MAURITANIAN is a good film, a sincere film with a worthy subject, and one that features a powerful central performance by Tahar Rahim but one that never fully catches fire dramatically. Still it is worth a look, for what it does have, particularly Tahar Rahim and Jodie Foster.

THE MAURITANIAN opens Friday, Feb. 12, at several area theaters and will be available on-demand in March

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars