Starring: Dennis Quaid, Sela Ward, Jake Gyllenhaal and Ian Holm
Director: Roland Emmerich
Rated: M15+
IN the language of Hollywood, The Day After Tomorrow is an ‘effects film’.
There are a few things you should know about this kind of movie. The actors and the plot are mostly irrelevant. It hardly matters if the story is silly.
The dialogue can be trite and predictable. Cheap, easy sentimentality will be exploited as often as possible. And a ton of stuff – usually really big stuff – will get blown to smithereens.
In these terms, director Roland Emmerich does not disappoint with his grandiose eco-disaster follow up to Independence Day. And he does blow a lot of stuff to smithereens.
As a result of global warming, a massive chunk of polar ice falls into the sea irreparably altering the Atlantic Ocean currents that bring warmth from south to north. The disruption gives rise to a massive storm which throws the Northern Hemisphere into a cataclysmic ice age.
Hail the size of rugby balls falls on Tokyo. Tornados obliterate Los Angeles. And a tsunami rolls over the Statue of Liberty and floods New York City. At every turn, the computer-generated destruction is fantastic.
Through all this, prophetic climatologist Dennis Quaid – who is pretty good in his irrelevant performance – must trek through the snow-covered Atlantic seaboard to save his son (Jake Gyllenhall) stranded in a frozen New York public library.
In spite of the silly science, grotesque sentimentality (at one point, Sela Ward must choose to join the evacuation of Washington DC or stay behind to read a story to a young chemotherapy patient) and pedantic environmentalism, The Day After Tomorrow is surprisingly entertaining. The effects are the big star of the film, but, with only the mildest suspension of belief, the story manages to carry us through a beautifully rendered and entertaining ride.
