I don’t often point folks to the political mag The Weekly Standard (okay, except when there’s a LOL funny or pointed column by Larry Miller), but I thought Jonathan Last’s The Hijacking of “The Day After Tomorrow” is a knowledgeable look at how a film that isn’t crafted to make any sharp political points is being tilted that way by others.
Last, who wrote the column on movie trailers which I linked to last week, is a man who knows how to make points without bluntly stating such pat observations as “this sucks.” To wit:
IT’S AN IRRESISTIBLE high concept and Emmerich’s direction is sure and steady. He’s seen the canon. He knows what notes every self-respecting disaster movie must hit. A divorced couple torn apart by the husband’s work, who must reconcile in the face of death? Check. A character who sacrifices himself for the good of the team by falling to his death? Check. Two attractive adolescents who struggle to reveal their true feelings for one another? Check. Rich people learning valuable life lessons from the poor? Check.
Likewise, the incoherent physics and many gaps in narrative cohesion–when the tsunami hits Manhattan, it strikes the west side of the island–only add to the movie’s charm.