I worked a half day today, met up with V and headed down to WTC to grab lunch in the courtyard at the World Financial Center (gorgeous day) and then catch Oliver Stone's movie. It was my idea to watch the movie down there - thought it would be fitting, however, I had no idea how I'd react. Some New Yorkers have complained that with WTC and United 93, that it's too soon. I totally understand why.
I knew that I would cry watching the movie, but what I didn't know was that I would start to cry a few minutes into it. 9/11 was an absolutely gorgeous morning with the skies amazing clear and bright, I was in the midst of gearing up for our trip to Ireland and Spain, and then IT happened. Watching this movie brought back a lot of memories - vivid images and emotions from that day, the couple of times that me and my friends spent volunteering at the Ground Zero respite centers, and lastly, the day that SG took me out to lunch to break the news that he's enlisted in the Army.
The NY Times captures the jist of the movie fittingly:
“World Trade Center” is, from the first frame to last, almost unbearably moving. It could hardly be otherwise, given the facts of the story and the memories it will stir up.
It is this combination of frantic action with stunned, shocked impotence that “World Trade Center” most effectively reproduces.
Mr. Stone has taken a public tragedy and turned it into something at once genuinely stirring and terribly sad. His film offers both a harrowing return to a singular, disastrous episode in the recent past and a refuge from the ugly, depressing realities of its aftermath.
Don't get me wrong. I'm happy to have seen the movie, but now I have to figure out how to dig myself out of this melancholy funk. Not even a shoe and purse shopping trip to Century 21 helped. Maybe the thing to do is just let it take its natural course... Luckily, I'm headed out of town first thing in the AM with Chett... Maybe the weekend at the Shore will be a bit uplifting.