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15 Minutes
by Christian De Matteo
Super
John Herzfeld, writer/director of 2
Days in the Valley, the man responsible for
this brave film, highlights our tabloid and
sensation obsessed culture.
In about two hours he points his finger not
only at the media that brings us our daily heaping
helping of unimportant crap, but also at us, the
viewing public for tuning in.
The film is long and at times meanders with
its point, sometimes being heavy-handed and
didactic, other times attacking other subjects and
digressing, but these short-comings are minimal
compared to the overall punch of the film, which
is hits pretty hard.
But who the hell goes to the movies to be preached
to? Not
I.
Luckily, Herzfeld knows how to make a movie, how to
utilize our love of excitement and drama to make
his point and still
make us thrilled to be in the theater.
This is a movie that entertains, that
involves you, keeps you on the edge of your seat,
and makes you feel for the characters.
If you’ve seen 2
Days in the Valley, you know Herzfeld loves
his characters.
They get center stage and the plot moves
around them.
In 15
Minutes, people are the focus, American
society is the focus, so Herzfeld makes sure you
know all the sides of De Niro’s celebrity cop,
Burns frustrated Fire Marshall, and even
Grammar’s ratings obsessed, blood monger
journalist. Herzfeld has an agenda, so one can feel the taint of message
with each character, but this is a forgivable
fault, due to the usually strong presence of
humanity each of the actors bring with them.
And the actors do seem to understand the film and
work well to portray their parts in the overall
story. Robert
De Niro (Backdraft, Ronin) is, of course, excellent.
This is not the best acting job he’s ever
done, you never forget the actor is De Niro, but
Herzfeld doesn’t want you to, because De
Niro’s celebrity carries perfectly onto his
character, and his famed skill does the rest.
Ed Burns (The
Brothers McMullen, Saving Private Ryan) is
instantly lovable as the Fire Marshall, a force of
good in a world of compromise and evil, a young
man still maintaining a smattering of innocence.
And Kelsey Grammar deviates nicely from his
demure and bewildered Frasier
persona, for a very guttural, despicable
performance as the film’s real target.
The film is not at all perfect, but its mistakes are
forgettable in light of the overall project.
There are a number of times Herzfeld makes
you think the film is about to end, a film
technique to surprise us, the audience.
The technique works against him a bit
though, due to overuse, serving often to remind
the audience how for long they’ve been sitting,
something no movie should ever do.
The film could have been condensed more,
but you can feel Herzfeld’s worry that his whole
message wouldn’t come across were it shorter.
I found myself wondering how long the film
was before the studio got their hands on it.
Perhaps the DVD will enlighten us to that.
Regardless, the movie is action-packed without being
an action movie, exciting and also a film that
leaves you with a question to ponder.
There are many more funny moments in the
film than I expected and a much braver surprise
than I would ever have suspected.
The movie ran the gambit on my emotions,
not lingering ever near the point of devastation,
but hitting each enough to keep my heart pounding
like the killers were after me.
In one of the opening scenes, Grammer’s
character chants “Reality, reality!” and there
are times when wonders if the film always remains
in that realm itself, but it is an entertainment
and one of the best I’ve seen of early 2001, and
as such I heartily recommend the film as a fine,
discuss-over-a-piece-of-pie-at-the-diner-afterward
movie and an extremely exciting and enjoyable
watch.
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