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Martin Scorsese's latest look at the darker side of New York
city is a visual treat with some great moments but falls down
slightly due to the lack of a real plot.
Nicolas Cage plays Frank Pierce, an ambulance driver who is
going a bit haywire due job stress, lack of sleep, and a diet
of coffee and whiskey. Over the course of three nights we are
shown why he is haunted and harrowed. It has been months since
he has saved anyone's life and he is particularly troubled by
the death of young girl Rose, whose face he sees almost everywhere
he turns.
Frank's paramedic partners have their own bizarre ways of dealing
with things which often make things even worse for him. John
Goodman's character plans his routes around the city in order
to get to the best takeaway joints. Ving Rhames is brilliant
as the avenging evangelist who tricks hypochondriacs into believing
they have been cured by the power of the Lord, while Tom Sizemore
is the guy who likes to chase and beat up the local deadbeats.
And these guys all seem relatively sane when seen against the
backdrop of the postively manic accident and emergency wards
which make ER seem like a monastery. Add in the countless weirdoes
that he encounters on the street and its no wonder Frank is
going bonkers.
The only calm that Frank finds is when he is with Mary (played
by Cage's real life wife Patricia Arquette) the daughter of
a cardiac patient that Frank helped to revive. But don't try
and make any sense of the story, just sit back and watch the
pop video sounds and visuals of New York at night because this
movie works best as an experience rather than a narrative with
a start and a finish. Frank's life doesn't seem any worse or
better at the end of the movie than it was at the start and
we don't really learn any more about him at that time either.
All we really get is to sit his ambulance with him and see the
crazy things that happen.
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