WTC View

Movies are not known as a writer’s medium and yet there are so many examples to disprove this. One of them is WTC View, written, produced and directed by Brian Sloan. If the central performance by Michael Urie doesn’t knock your socks off, the script will.

This is what they call back-of-an-envelope filmmaking – no stars, no special effects, chilly prospects at the b.o, and an icy wind blowing from the financial district. But hey! It has commitment, love, loyalty and post traumatic stress. The humour may be camp, but the sensibility is universally decent.

After 9/11, what?

After 10/11, where?

Eric (Urie) has advertised for a flatmate. The room overlooks what two days ago was the World Trade Centre. As a gay man in his mid-twenties, who has split from his long time lover, he is finding the responsibility of being single in the aftermath of New York’s worst terrorist attack difficult to come to terms with. He lives so close and it happened only yesterday (“Is it still smoking?”) and he can’t sleep and everything’s falling apart, not literally but in ways that affect the equilibrium of his heart.

He waits for prospective lodgers and when they arrive turns on the charm, a little too up, a little too My Space, flashing his cute smile like an invitation to the ball, while inside he’s asking questions that torpedo hope of getting through the night. Slowly, with infinite subtlety, Sloan exposes Eric’s insecurities, which are reflected to a greater or lesser degree throughout the nation. If this can happen to us, is anything safe?

His best friend Josie (Elizabeth Kapplow) drops by to make sure he’s alright and acts as a comic foil. She’s had no sex either since it happened, although admits to having her hair done before the second plane hit. Eric grieves the breakdown of his relationship.

“We didn’t feel sexy.”

“What did you feel?”

“Alive – a kinda sad alive.”

On the surface, there is nothing to WTC View. Under the surface, it is profound and moving and often very funny.

Only those who were there…

Sloan takes you within a heartbeat of how the world can change and leave witnesses incoherent with fear.