Subscribe"While Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead had the bigger name cast and (of course) the more arresting visuals, I more greatly appreciated this small, little-seen independent with a similar theme. A new young paramedic (Jason London) is teamed with a veteran (Todd Field), who quickly shows him the ropes--not necessarily of the job, but of his sordid world of drug abuse and sex. Ruin inevitably follows, as does a shot at redemption. Scorsese's film bests writer-director Scott Ziehl's in terms of style, but I found the scaled-down execution here to be a bit more effective considering both films have a small, intimate story to tell. Where Scorsese's film had the flashy array of supporting players, Ziehl's film concentrates on the two characters, and as such the dramatic focus never meanders the way that Dead did, and while both films are fairly obvious in their story's intent, Vessels goes about it in a more subtle way. Also factor in a powerhouse performance (by Field) that Dead lacked, and Broken Vessels makes a quieter but deeper impression."
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posted by ericb at 8:22 PM on August 25, 2007