| 8 MILE |
| Starring Eminem, Brittany Murphy, Mekhi Pfeiffer, Kim Basinger Directed by Curtis Hanson **� out of **** With millions of dollars of record sales behind him, Eminem had to conquer another area, film. Naysayers scoffed and talked about his limited appeal; any film of his would only attract his fans. Then it had a huge opening weekend, and set a new record for a R-rated dvd: $40 million in sales on the first day. How did he do it? 8 Mile is at least semi-biographical. The appeal is in the story�s universal theme: the little guy trying to make it big in the face of various odds and eventually succeeding. That happened to Eminem, it happens to the main character of this movie, Jimmy, or rather B Rabbit. Jimmy (Eminem) just broke up with his girlfriend. To his disgrace, he has to move back in with his mother (Kim Basinger) in the trailer park. He has a low pay, go-nowhere job where he presses steel. One of his friends (Mekhi Pfeiffer) convinces him to partake in a slam battle, a graphic war of words between two people where the winner is decided by the audience. On that night, Jimmy chokes. He doesn�t utter a word. Humiliated, he leaves the club. The film deals with the events in the week leading up to the next battle, of which Jimmy wants to know nothing. He meets a girl, Alex (Brittany Murphy), who gets his blood boiling and wants, just like him, to get out of the industrial cage of Detroit. 8 Mile would be simply average were it not for Eminem�s surprisingly good performance and the grey realism of the visuals. Judging by the film�s depiction of (a part of) Detroit, that�s one city I�ll never want to be in. Everything is industrial; blue-grey, steely, cold. Dilapidated buildings are abandoned but still standing. One character points out that a girl was raped in such a building. The film excels at dealing with blue collar characters trying to make things stick, but without making them appear pathetic and worthy of our bourgeoisie pity. The plot never leaves the confines of the reality the film creates; the film ends as one would expect, but also doesn�t. I liked the way Jimmy evolved from where we met him as a nervous white boy until we see him for the last time, as a young man who�s made peace with where he comes from and what he is. 8 Mile is pretty clear in its message that you shouldn�t be ashamed of your social background, and also that it shouldn�t hold you back. Eminem is a fine actor, and this familiar material (scripted by Scott Silver) suits him perfectly. 8 Mile has beat, Eminem songs, a little bit of romance and familial squabbles. There�s also a lot of swearing, and I have to confess that I grew a little tired of the abundant exclamations of �Word!� and �dog�. I know its functional in that it heightens the reality of the picture, but as the film ended I�d gone beyond the point of saturation. I wouldn�t recommend 8 Mile to everybody. Younger people will definitely identify with much of what the film says. Fans of the performer will obviously stand in lines to get a ticket. Anyone who has to truly reflect on where he or she will spend hard earned rands should consider walking a different piece of road. COPYRIGHT CW BROODRYK 2003 |
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