8 Mile

Review by Clint Morris

Memo to the marketers: ok, it worked.

I’ve espoused the music. I’ve even bought some of it. And I’m here, fretfully eager, ready to rock my way into the long-awaited (it opened in the states back in November) media screening of rapper Eminem’s 8 Mile.

It is the controversial artiste’s first - rumour has it gobsmacking - incursion into film.

Boy, let this flick be good. Or I’ll swear, I’ll swear, I will hand my marketing degree back into my university, and with it, the Eminem back catalogue I purchased because it was pushed onto me as I limbered up to an apparently awe-inspiring film, that even I as a reviewer, couldn’t see for months to come.

It’s the first time I’ve been seduced by a marketing campaign for years – have the corps finally ensnared the sucker in me?

And is there need for me to summon the heavens for a vociferous hammering of thunder and lightning, requesting the target to be the marketing team behind a disingenuous feature?

Nope, no way – there isn’t no more solid conduit than that gratifying tar of 8 Mile.

Finally, a film that lives up to it’s hype – and on top of that, one that not only stimulated the senses, touched the inner-cockles, and ravaged the cynic in me… But got me rhyming all the way back to my PC.

Though not a true story, 8 Mile bares close semblance to that of the life of its titular star, rapper Eminem (real name Marshall Mathers III). Mathers – as we’ve learned through his music – lived in a trailer park, had an intolerable mamma, raised a daughter and, logically, longed to be an ashen rap star.

In 8 Mile he calls himself Jimmy “Rabbit” Smith Jr, a dweller of “8 mile”, a stretch of road Detroit folks know as the periphery, a psychosomatic line that divides the worthy and the unworthy.

His ex-girlfriend claims she’s knocked up, his job is thankless and his new lodging, his mother’s trailer, is insufferable – the only way one can possibly get out of such a calamitous situation is to… Well, turn into a emblematical rap singer and take on the biggies.

Even from the film’s commencement it’s evident that not only is this a special film, but its star, Eminem, truly is a movie star.

His performance – some may say it’s all in his sorrowful eyes – is unbelievable. He will truly surprise the sceptics with his honest, regretful and credible performance as the small fry with a heart of gold who gets his moment.

He is supported admirably by Kim Basinger, in one of the most challenging roles of her career as Smith’s battered and boozy mum, Mekhi Phifer as dependable and accommodating pal ‘Future’, and Brittany Murphy fittingly cast in the role of the sexy, but ill-intentioned love interest.

Curtis Hanson’s film actually resembles the original Rocky: The beginning scenes, middle and ‘battle of the rappers’ finale bears much resemble to Stallone’s landmark hit, although it’s microphones here that are the weapon, not fists.

Like Rocky, this is an extremely well written tale, and by its end you’ll be well and truly taken with its ostensible underdog.

If you don’t like rap music, or Eminem, there still may be something in this for you – the performances enough will see you through. Either that, or your musical tastes might even change by the film’s final minutes.

A powerhouse of drama, fervour and rhyme, 8 Mile is the first great film of the year.

4 out of 5

8 Mile
Australian release: Thursday January 16
Cast: Eminem, Kim Basinger, Brittany Murphy, Mekhi Phifer, Chloe Greenfield, Evan Jones.
Director: Curtis Hanson.
Website: Click here

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