MOVIE CLUB: 8 MILE
From: Sam Hallgren
To: Adam Kempenaar; Eric Baker
Subject: Can Eminem act? Short answer: No.

More than one review that I perused before seeing "8 Mile" asked the following hypothetical question(s) that were, supposedly, being asked by American moviegoers everywhere: "Can Eminen act?", and "Is 8 Mile any good?" I won't deny that I was curious. I also won't deny that I was optimistic (and this is where we get into the fuzzy, but little-discussed area of expectations). Firstly, to choose a project like this -- as opposed to a "House Party" or a "Friday" or any of the other disposable rapper/entertainer movies that have become increasingly present over the past couple of years -- showed bravery on Eminem's part. Sure, he wouldn't be asked to stray too far from his own persona, but to make a screen debut in the starring role of a gritty urban drama directed by a well-respected director -- one that would be asked to be taken seriously by critics -- could almost be seen as lunatic. But I think the reasons Eminem decided to make the film were the very same reasons that dictate his actions in the film itself. And I think this is admirable. And there is much to admire about the film -- the supporting acting is very good; the climactic freestyle rapping scenes are terrific; and the community that the film takes as its subject is unique in mainstream Hollywood filmmaking: you do not see poor, young, urban white and black men unless there is the iminent threat of gang violence. The movie went out of its way to offer an andidote to the gang-sploitation that so many rap-centric movies celebrate. I appreciated this as well. OK. So. Back to the questions at the top. Can Eminem act? The short answer is "no." I don't think the director or the screenwiter or the editor trusted him enough to act. Aside from his time on stage (when he is irrefutably magnetic), Eminem isn't given anything to do but look sullenly at various characters, or to yell at various characters, or to joke mildly with various characters. He doesn't say more than one sentence at any one time in the entire film. There is no "Oscar winning moment." There is no acting. I'm not saying what he's asked to to is easy, but he is constantly being undermined by the script or the editor, and so what you have at the center of the film is a cipher, which amounts to nothing more than the accumulated perceptions of the audience. Instead of telling the story through the Eminem character, the film tries to build a character out of the fragmented peices of its central character's life. But this story doesn't work unless we are made to believe that THIS IS EMINEM'S STORY. But this isn't Eminem's story. At the end of the film, when Rabbit walks away --apparantly from everything and everyone -- any elation or catharsis the audience is invited to experience is completely dependent on the notion that Rabbit IS Eminem. But movie never stops reminding us that this is NOT Emimen's story (as similar as it may be). For this reason, I frequently found the movie boring. The movie was at odds with itself, a fiction that required a nonfiction context that simultaneously denied the existence of the nonfiction. It makes me think that Eminem just couldn't hold up his end. Maybe there was a movie there, and he couldn't fill the role -- a role that wouldn't exist without him. Is this ironic, or is there another word for it. I'm still rooting for this movie. I think it's great that so many people are seeing it. I think it tells a story (about urban decay; about relationships between people of different races; about loyalty, about friendship and family) that isn't being told in mainstream cinema. And the freestyle scenes are awesome. These scenes are the sugar that makes the medicine go down. And I don't think that cheapens it. Even the sugar tells a story worth hearing.