In the first scene of the movie, a young girl and her mother are waiting for the subway to arrive in New York City in 1991. They get mugged, and the mother gets shot. So far, this is really all we know. Pause. Jump forward to the next scene, which is 10 years later. Not to spoil the film, but this is about two minutes in, and we know we are set in 2001 in New York City. And you already now how the movie is going to end. I’ll give you a hint…. Someone is going to die.
In addition to a poor, and I’ll say overused, setting choice, our main character is pretty unoriginal. Tyler Hawkins, the loner boy who’s mysterious enough to draw the girls in, but distant enough to have trouble really letting them in to his heart. He’s the son of a rich divorced couple. His dad is a partner in a law firm, and his brother died a few years ago. His internal pain is overwhelming, and he hides it with drinking. But, he meets a girl who’s just interesting enough to draw him out of his pain cocoon, after all this girl orders her dessert first.
This movie does draw out some emotion from the viewer, the most so when Tyler’s little sister is getting picked on at school, and the other little girls make her feel worthless. Other times, like when Tyler and his father are having a yelling match, the movie is trying to hard, and doesn’t elicit and emotional response.
The biggest problem with this movie is that the setting is overdone. I tire of writers and directors thinking that using September 11th is creative and that it will tug at the heartstrings of Americans. It’s overdone, and I think it’s a lazy way to end a film, that shows a lack of creativity. There’s thousands of ways to make a character die, and I think it’s time that Hollywood stops taking the lazy way out. 2 out of 5 stars.
