One of the most compelling ways to tell a story is to let it tell itself, without embellishment. In The Guys, Anne Nelson's story does just that.
The events of September 11, 2001 are a very volatile subject; Nelson's story stays focused on how to talk about firefighters lost in one engine company at the World Trade Center. It humanizes the event and the emotional aftershock and side steps everything else. Simpson skillfully blends voice-over, text, storytelling, simulated archive footage, along with traditional film-making, keeping the spirit of the original stage play intact. It would be easy to tell such a tale with force fed melodrama, but instead, the audience is allowed breathing room to process right along with the characters on the screen.
Through sheer providence a journalist, was asked to assist a Fire Department captain to write eight eulogies for men lost on September 11. It's all told primarily through La Paglia and Weaver, who both turn in solid performances. Weaver embodies everyone who is the voice of every thought ricocheting through the head of everyone who's not directly effected. La Paglia's delivers an understated but eloquent performance of a man who can't afford the luxury of his own grief; through La Paglia, we see struggling to find a voice for the unspeakable.
There is a lot to be said on the subject of September 11; this film is a reminder of perspective.
