“9/11 … it’s the only thing real that’s ever happened to them.”

There’s something about this, kinda as with Hedwig and the Angry Inch, that made me certain at all turns that I shouldn’t have been loving it as much as I was. I’ve written far too often of how the world at large’s insistence on the binary separation of male and female as something ever-defining etc pisses me off (I mean, Jesus wept, today I had to tell a machine what was between my legs before I could sit in the waiting room at the dentist’s …), and on the whole, this movie (ironically, again like Hedwig) doesn’t have as much leeway on this matter as you’d think it might: in so many of these self-proclaimed open-minded pieces, you’re still either male or female or, if you’re lucky, inbetween – which is great; but ... if you are inbetween in movies like this, you’ve got to be somehow overly extravagant, flamboyant or offensive – I mean, whoever heard of a boring, down-to-earth deviant, right? All that said, as with Hedwig, in this case it works: because, as I’ll say over any cliché thing that should annoy yet doesn’t, the rules don’t apply if such behaviours come from believable characters; and this movie is among the most human I’ve seen.

I still think that anyone who lets sex rule their lives to this degree is really missing out on 10 times as much as I’m sure they’d think I’m missing out on clinging to my virginity … if I met these people in real life, I’d steer clear of them. But, put on film, I don’t know, it’s every bit as much a celebration of life and humanity and finding yourself as Hedwig was. There’s something about having this stuff laid bare in an undeniably artistic (as opposed to pornographic) context that makes it get seriously under your skin with a passion. I personally didn’t find it as explicit as I’d heard; though certainly there are things shown that I’ve never seen in anything so “mainstream”, I feel more offense is likely to be caused by things like the sexualisation of the Statue of Liberty and the shelf of dildos overlooking Ground Zero at the start.

I’ll watch it again if only for its raw beauty. Between this and Hedwig, I’m pretty sure one day John Cameron Mitchell is really gonna wow me – in fact, I have to admit, it’s probably only that hunch and a second viewing keeping this and Hedwig from that elusive 5th heart.

The poster of this says, “This is the story you haven’t heard.” Hmm. Yeh – unless of course you’ve read the book by Daniel Pearl’s wife that it’s based on, I guess. Even if you haven’t, I don’t think there’s a lot here that couldn’t be inferred by the basics of the story. Your husband goes missing in the most dangerous part of the world right now, how exactly are you gonna react?

I considered trying like so many have not to sound insensitive in this review, to glow enough about Angelina Jolie’s performance that I don’t have to worry about the lack of comment on the rest of the movie. I decided, hopefully those who know me already will know I’m sensitive about stuff like this, and hopefully those who don’t know me that care about whether a person is sensitive about such things will attempt to get to know me.

In short, it’s not that great a movie. I was swung as most everyone else by Jolie’s performance in the end – though I’m still a little skeptical that the nonetheless emotionally affecting “screaming in a room” scene is really worthy of an Oscar nod – but like the last Michael Winterbottom movie I saw before the only slightly better Cock and Bull Story, Code 46, this is ultimately so “authentically” procedural it’s painful (and not in a good way).