"World Trade Center," Oliver Stone's film about Port Authority officers John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno (played, respectively, by Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena), begins Sept. 11, 2001, when the two officers and their colleagues have just started the day's work, and the first plane strikes the North Tower. They reach the World Trade Center concourse just as the second plane hits -- and are forced to retreat into an elevator shaft when tons of debris rain upon them.

McLoughlin communicates with his wife, Donna (Maria Bello), through flashbacks and reveries and reassesses his commitment to their marriage, but the exchanges don't rise above hollow recitations we've heard in movies before. (See In Focus on Page 31.) Jimeno, a man of faith, has visions of Christ carrying a vessel of water. Meanwhile, Donna and a pregnant Allison Jimeno (Maggie Gyllenhaal) wait by the phone, bicker a little with their families, berate the Port Authority for its frustratingly few tidbits of information and try to explain what is happening to their bewildered children.

Audiences looking for a no-fuss recitation of what happened to McLoughlin and Jimeno will find the movie they seek. Cage and Pena are believable in their roles. And Stone's trademark stylistics make an effective first act. But while "World Trade Center" is long on veneration for its subjects and scrupulous in portraying the details, big and small, of what unfolded that day, it short-changes audiences when it comes to dramatic revelations that could have resonated on a deeper level. It telegraphs its emotions loud and clear, but somehow they don't reach us.

-- Desson Thomson (Aug. 9, 2006)

Contains emotional scenes, disturbing images and profanity.