I recently saw ‘The day After Tomorrow’ in a theatre in India and found myself thoroughly bored after 30 minutes. Here is why.
The Plot: The plot of the movie is actually interesting. In a conference held at some future date in New Delhi, Professor Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) warns the world of looming environmental disaster. We have damaged the environment so much that the imbalances may lead us back to the ice age again. No one takes him seriously, including the vice president of the US (Kenneth Welsh) who is present at the conference.
Outside the conference hall it is snowing in New Delhi. (I wish it would at the present, monsoon rains have been delayed this year, and we are chafing under the hot and humid weather.) Only a professor from Scotland, Terry Rapson (Ian Holm) is willing to believe Jack, and both get together at New Delhi and start collaborating once they are back to their respective countries. Within a very quick period, the prophesy of Jack seems to be coming true.
Subplot 1: Subplot one is basically lame. Lack’s ex-wife, Dr. Lucy Hall (Sela Ward), has the custody of their teenaged son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal). Jack has to interact with Lucy because of that. The question here is, during the disaster will Jack and Lucy come together?
Subplot 2: Subplot 2 is partly lame but partly not developed. Jack’s son Sam has gone to New York to participate in some school quiz. He has a crush on a fellow student Laura (Emmy Rossum) and that is the main motive to join the team.
Now New York gets badly hit by the disaster; Sam, Laura and many others are caught in the city. Jack promises his son that he will come to fetch him and they should stay inside and stay warm. Jack walks out in snow to rescue his son along with two colleagues Jason (Dash Mihok) and Frank (Jay O. Sanders).
The lame part in this subplot is Jack setting out on foot to fetch his son. It doesn’t seem plausible. Left me with the feeling that either the storm was not so severe or Jack was superhuman. The not properly developed part is Sam and Laura getting closer without any chemistry between them.
The Good: As I said before the concept of ice age and the special effects.
The Bad: First of all the lead characters in the movie reduced me to grinding my teeth. Jack and Lucy are divorced/estranged but from scene one you can see it is a good one. All the feeling are hidden just below the surface and all they have to do to make it work is to say some stupid sentimental things. At one point Jack is looking at some pictures and says to Lucy, 'I do not remember that vacation'. Lucy reminds him that he was working at Alaska for his Ph.D. Immediately Jack looks guilt ridden and it seems this particular problem between them is solved forever. Not convincing at all.
Similarly, Sam and Laura are attracted to each other for god knows what reason. OK, maybe it is because Lucy is beautiful and Sam is intelligent. Throw in a very rich student from a rival team competing for Laura’s attention. Sam beats the rival hands down because he is not only intelligent but also incredibly brave. The rival can do nothing apart from looking good and having a nice home. How interesting does this scenario sounds to you? Add some lame gazing into each other’s eyes acting and corny dialogues and damage is beyond repair.
Another dumb twist to the plot was some escaped wolves attacking the student’s group in New York. They did not attack anyone else but straight headed for our gang, and I really start wondering what the director/script writer had in mind? It just looked like a lame trick to grab audience’s attention.
I wonder why the movie had to spoil the good idea of disaster with corny relationships. The movie could have worked if the relationships were developed well and we could feel for the characters. So many people were dying, and I felt no compelling reason why I should feel more deeply for Sam and Laura.
On second thoughts, the family angle was necessary because once the storm was in motion our scientist Jack Hall had nothing more to do, as the storm would abate on its own. So the next most significant thing our hero could do was to rescue some near and dear ones. But then sufficient care should have been taken to develop the relationships and tie it with larger suffering. Over all, I would not recommend this movie, even not for the special effects because the rest of it is so boring that even special effects fail to lift it.
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