hen it was said that Oliver Stone was making a movie that chronicles the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, the general consensus was that it would be another one of his morbid views of current history, perhaps something like what he did with "JFK." However, his World Trade Center is a no-nonsense, fact-based drama, as seen through two New York cops and their families.

From an event that associates mostly with death, destruction and misery, Stone and writer Andrea Berloff have made a movie about survival, family and love. Though it is about a horrific disaster, this is a powerfully intimate film. Stone doesn’t depict the horrors of that day as much as suggested. By focusing on two New York Port Authority cops who were rescued after being buried for 12 hours in the wreckage of ground zero, Stone has delivered his most emotionally charged movie to date so much that it certainly doesn't feel like an Oliver Stone movie.

Nicolas Cage stars as John McLoughlin who, along with fellow officer Will Jimeno (Crash’s Michael Peña), offers powerful performances as real-life cops whose usual duties involve keeping derelicts from hassling passengers at the bus station. But news comes that there has been an accident at the World Trade Center - a commuter plane has crashed into one of the towers - so, both McLoughlin and Jimeno become part of a five-man team that voluntarily goes into the smoldering tower to free any trapped survivors and assist in the evacuation.

With the collapse of the towers, WTC becomes a survival film, with members of the team killed in the crash and pinning the two seriously injured survivors in a maze of jagged concrete. With no chance of freeing themselves, they can only support each other's spirits and hope they somehow will be rescued.