World Trade Center

Admittedly, there are a few great shots... But, still, none of it says anything new. And it's just so sentimental.

(Director Oliver) Stone has concentrated on one of the catastrophe's stories and has fashioned it well -- with almost palpable physical detail, and with performances that never sink to exploitation.

It celebrates the courage of the rescue teams and the fortitude of their families while giving you a visceral sense of what it was like to be among them.

It's almost as if Stone wants to ingratiate himself with the mainstream public that rejected his historical blockbuster Alexander and win the approval of his right-wing critics.

Even without his box of political tricks, Oliver Stone remains the foremost cinematic shrink for America's distress.

Destiny pervades the project, and anyone who expected Stone to toe anything other than the company line was gravely mistaken.

Stone manages to give it a well-intentioned treatment that often honors the heroism of the rescuers, but its plot slowly collapses when it stretches out the episodes of familiar clichés and far-fetched sentimentality. [Full review in Spanish]

Stone's work is thoroughly conformist and encourages various forms of backwardness.

I can't recommend World Trade Center, but I will say I respect the effort. Still, I think the material deserved a better final product than the one that Stone has delivered.

A simple, hauntingly devastating, yet finally optimistic experience.