The Guys: Synopsis

"I hope that `The Guys' offers a personal glimpse and portrait of New Yorkers after the attack on the World Trade Center. Names and some details have been changed but for the most part this meeting between a writer and a Fire Captain actually occurred. Two strangers working together to put a human face on a catastrophe. It's a story that wasn't covered by the news. I think the movie version is even more intimate and warm than the play and it features two of our best actors in simple eloquent performances."
-- Director/screenwriter Jim Simpson

In this powerfully moving and unexpectedly humorous film, a New York City journalist (Sigourney Weaver) is called upon to help a fire captain (Anthony LaPaglia) write a series of eulogies for the men he lost at the World Trade Center. As the fireman begins to open up and work through his grief, the two form an unexpected bond - and we rediscover the quiet heroism that informs all of our daily lives.

"'Where were you on September 11th?' That's the question of the year," observes Joan, a journalist who lives with her family on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Portrayed by Sigourney Weaver in The Guys, Joan, like every other New Yorker, is uncertain of how to deal with her feelings in the days after September 11th. As she helps Nick (Anthony LaPaglia), a fire captain, eulogize his men, those feelings - anger, confusion and sadness - rush to the surface.

The Guys captures that unique period of terrible emotional upheaval and uncertainty in New York City. Ten days after the attacks, ramifications of loss and feelings of powerlessness bring together two New Yorkers who may otherwise never have met. The emotions Joan and Nick express, both in the eulogies and in their private conversation, are by turns angry, heart-wrenching, and contemplative. The words they create together honor the memories of the men who gave their lives to save others.