9/11 is based on Patrick James Carson's play Elevator. It is a low budget film about five people trapped in an elevator in the north tower of the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001.
I still remember a work colleague in Britain telling me what happened during that day. The way he described it I was not sure whether he was joking or not or whether the whole thing was just incredulous. I tried to go on the BBC news website and it took ages for it to download the headline page because of the volume of the net traffic.
Charlie Sheen and Gina Gershon are a couple on the verge of divorce. He is a billionaire, the lift they use suddenly stops. Luis Guzman plays a worker in the lift who contacts Whoopie Goldberg who works in the maintenance room.
The five people in the elevator are initially unaware as to what has happened but slowly they become aware especially via Goldberg what is happening all around them and they need to get out of the elevator quickly.
The film does look a bit cheap and quickly shot but the actors give passionate and earnest performances, especially as it dawns on them as to the peril they are in and something very serious has taken place.
Even the audience would fear the worse for these five people and that they make not make it out alive.
The film does draw you in and rather captivates you as it goes along even though at times you also feel the film is manipulative. I can understand why the movie was accused of bad taste because of its release date near the date of the disaster.
