The Sunday Tribune

A dull affair
Ervell E. Menezes

Dennis Quaid (Centre) with the cast of the new action thriller The Day After Tomorrow Jake Gyllenhaal (left) and Emmy Rossum during a photo call in Tokyo recently. The film opened in theatres throughout Japan on June 5. — Reuters photo

THE Day After Tomorrow is a disaster film with its roots in an ecological crisis caused by global warming. But two decades ago, Hollywood used a missile attack from the Communists to trigger off doomsday in a film called The Day After. This is evidently a remake of it but after 9/11, they prefer to deal with natural disasters.

Prof Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) has his own theory about major climatic shifts which could result in deep freezing but he doesn’t have many takers. Across the Atlantic, he has a supporter in Prof Terry Rapson (Ian Holm) but they are both regarded as prophets of doom. That is, until this disaster hits them.

Director Rolaand Emmerich, who made Independence Day with all its fanfare and specials effects, has co-written a good screenplay involving half a dozen characters and the interplay between them is meant to keep the film together. There’s Jack and his son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) who do not exactly demonstrate their love for each other. Jack is more at home with his colleagues Frank (Jay O. Sanders) and Jason (Dash Mohol). Jack’s wife (Sela Ward) being a professional too, they do not have much time together. Then you have young Sam and his classmate Laura (Emmy Rossum) and a sweet romance develops between them. What takes off rather impressively gets bogged down in overstating the point.

They also go ga-ga over special effects. The net result is visually pleasing but what could have been taut, absorbing drama is needlessly padded out. Dennis Quaid does a good job. A cross between Harrison Ford (sans wrinkled forehead) and Pierce Brosnan, he manages to hold the film together. Jake Gyllenhaal also impresses. But the second half drags and the US lip sympathy to the Third World is too partonising. Among the few ironies is Mexico shutting its borders to the Americans.

Despite the story moving along so many fronts, the 130 minutes seem endless. If only it was 100 minutes, it would have made a difference. It is a film which flatters only to deceive.