JENKIES! It's my first published review!

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Bringing Out the Dead is a movie about Frank (Nicolas Cage), an EMT who's been haunted by the ghost of a girl whose life he couldn't save. His salvation (part of it, anyway) appears in the form of Mary (Patricia), a woman he meets one night when he's trying to save her father from a heart attack. In this Mary, Frank must see all kinds of possibilities for his future happiness, but all you see on screen is a dull woman without life played in a dull way by a dull-looking Patricia. Because she's so dull and Frank himself is an anti-livewire, their scenes together thud with the whump of snow falling from cedars.

It's unfortunate, because the rest of the movie is very much alive. Characters, situations, even the camerawork and editing are vibrant and make the movie pulse.

The film takes place in that most impersonal and vast of cities, New York. It's easy for a plot to get lost in New York because New York provides such a vast palette. Yet Martin keeps things finite by revisiting characters and places repeatedly throughout the movie. He's created a little worldlet within NYC where everybody knows each other and different subcultures co-exist in a symbiotic, if not friendly, balance. This helps the viewer settle into the movie and feel somewhat at home. Faces become familiar. Places feel almost homey. The movie is solid and cohesive.

The visual style is also key to this cohesiveness. Unlike some films, where the style is just something cool that makes the movie hipper than it would be using standard techniques ( Three Kings is an example of this), Martin's style here meshes with every other element--story arc, characters, lighting, production design, etc.--to create a whole. Yes, Three Kings was neat and fun and exciting, and the style was all part of that, but when Scorsese uses slow motion, it's because Frank is seeing his world that way. When he uses fast motion, it's for the same reason. Frank's world has become a twisted nightmare, and so the camera twists in kind. In Three Kings, there are a couple shots showing the insides of a person, to demonstrate how a bullet in the gut is slowly lethal. It's gross, cool, and weird, but not at all necessary to the movie. All the quirks in Bringing Out the Dead are necessary for the movie's cohesion--Frank's visions of Rose (Cynthia Roman), the girl he couldn't save; the fireworks the drug dealer, Cy (Cliff Curtis, also in Three Kings), sees as he's impaled on the balcony railing; Mary's father, Mr. Burke (Cullen O. Johnson), "speaking" to Frank; the wandering white horse; the exploding car; the intense white lights from above... Bringing Out the Dead is an "organic" movie. And despite all the death and darkness, it's beautiful.

The next two paragraphs reveal a couple things, including the ending, so skip ahead if you want to.

Mary, dull as she is, is not called Mary for nothing. Martin runs a religious theme through the movie. It's pretty obvious a lot of the time, but it's not blatant enough to be annoying. I mean, it makes sense to hint at God and angels in a movie about death. Frank himself is dying, like the people he tries to save. His dwelling on death is what's killing him, and he needs to believe in life again to save himself. Mary is hope for Frank because he loves her, and love is a sign of life. The movie ends with a brilliant shot that at first appears merely mundane. Frank, having finally exorcized Rose, lays curled up in Mary's lap. She's sitting up, and holds his head gently. The shot lasts a long time, and as you start to wonder what the point is, you notice their position, and that the sunlight's been intensifying through the window, shining on the couple. Then it's 100% clear. Mary and Frank are a pietà. It's a quiet, still scene, shocking after the two hours of darkness and violence that's come before.

Another fascinating symbolic plot point of the movie is Frank's mercy killing of Mr. Burke. Frank has always, at all costs, tried to keep people alive, but in the year since Rose's death, he's not been able to save a single person. To save himself, Frank has assumed he needs to save a life phisically. But he discovers that, by sparing Mr. Burke the pain of being kept alive with machines and defibrillation, he can also save a life spiritually. This is the key to his own salvation, and he can finally put to rest the specter of Rose.

It would not be decent of me to finish without mentioning the rest of the awesome cast. Nicolas himself is good, though I wonder if maybe he had trouble playing Frank as such a one-note person. There are moments when Frank gets to freak out, and then Nicolas shines. The most enjoyable actor to watch was Ving Rhames as the hypocritical born-again Marcus. He's, as they say, freakin' hilarious, and the complete opposite of Patricia: When Ving's on screen, it just glows. Tom Sizemore plays a complete nutcase named... Tom. If Marcus is able to stand the horror of what he's seen as an EMT by accepting Jesus, even selectively, into his life, Tom is the EMT who's gone over the edge and himself becomes part of the violence. John Goodman is fine as another of Frank's partners, Larry. Larry is all business, and so escapes the horror that way. Marc Anthony plays Noel, a former childhood friend of Mary's who's now gone insane and ends up in and out of the emergency room throughout the course of the movie. Noel is one of the unusual characters who fleshes out the movie and makes it breathe. The ER, too, has its fun recurring characters, one a completely unsympathetic nurse, and one the lobby officer who always wears his sunglasses. Oh, and listen for Marty himself as a dispatcher.

While it won't be a huge hit, I think Bringing Out the Dead is worth watching. Just prepare yourself for the Mary and Frank stuff--bring a magazine--and enjoy the kinetic rush and strange visions the rest of the movie has to offer. See it on the big screen, too.

--Steve

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