And there's a grand-slam joke using the song ''Sweet Home Alabama,'' an omnipresent Motor City radio favorite that has extra resonance in Detroit, a place that refuses to give up its rock 'n' roll roots.
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''8 Mile,'' which opens nationwide today, is full of Detroit in-jokes, like Rabbit's referring to himself as ''810,'' one of Oakland County's area codes.
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The movie exploits Eminem's slight physical presence, saving the pop-star magnetism for the climax. The film is like a rap version of ''The Incredible Hulk,'' and when Rabbit triumphantly rocks the joint at the end, he's flushed, every vein in his body distended - the underdog giving vent to his rage and winning the crowd over. Only Future and the millions of record buyers in the moviegoing audience have any idea of Rabbit's abilities. But he is so unnerved by appearing onstage that, for most of the picture, Future's faith in the white rapper's skills seems misplaced. His real life begins at night when he goes out to compete in hip-hop contests. Rabbit keeps his rocket-from-the-crypt ambition focused, doing day work for little money at an auto stamping plant. Taryn Manning, in a much smaller role as Rabbit's ex-girlfriend, is far more believable and makes a bigger impact. Exuding a baby-girl narcissism, Alex - who wants to become a model and get out of Detroit - looks at Rabbit as just another opportunity. Her name is Alex, played by the smudge-eyed Brittany Murphy, who can't even walk into a room without sizing up the camera. (Here, he becomes the real Slim Shady.)Īnd like Presley in most of his films, Eminem is given an actressy flirt of a love interest. But when Rabbit starts hollering or rapping, he does indeed give off the explosion of vitality that Presley had while singing in his very early movies.
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Rabbit's main competitors - Papa Doc (Anthony Mackie) and his Leaders of the Free World squad - often dismiss him as ''Elvis,'' a white boy appropriating black culture. It's only when he gets angry that he comes to life and his voice takes on a shank's edge, dull and rusty. He holds back, waiting, a little nervous. He has lost weight for his first starring role, and the cleft in his chin has deepened, becoming another shadowy place where he seems to be hiding things. (It's the expression seen on gifted kids in horror movies.) In contrast to the intensity of his gaze, Eminem's facial muscles are often slack. They're going to make each word count, right down to never dropping a G from the end of an -ing.Įminem, though, has a relentless, unblinking stare. Both have soft, sandpapery voices and a stern politeness when they speak. In some ways he's very similar to another white pop-star-turned-actor, Mark Wahlberg. This is partly because Eminem gives little as an actor. ''8 Mile'' could be set in a Johnny Cash song, since Rabbit unabashedly refers to himself as white trash.Īnd it is backstage at the Detroit club, before Rabbit goes out to confront the crowd and compete, that we become aware of his odd remoteness. Rabbit has just broken up with his girlfriend and belongs nowhere. When ''8 Mile'' begins, Rabbit has moved back into the trailer park home where his mother (Kim Basinger) and little sister Lily (Chloe Greenfield) live, to find that one of his high school friends is now involved with his mom. And Jimmy Smith, who is called Rabbit and is determined to be a rapper, spends a great deal of time in hot water because of his mouth. Confidential'' and ''Wonder Boys,'' were about the trouble that words can cause. (The joke is that Oakland County is home to both the megastar white rapper Eminem and the parents who are most afraid of his influence on their kids.) Instead it's the beaten-down city: 8 Mile refers to the line of demarcation between Detroit and suburban, mostly white Oakland County. One of a handful of films made in Detroit, ''8 Mile'' doesn't feature the Motown renaissance that Mayor Coleman A. The movie has the echoey, haunted heart of Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' ''Hurt'': maybe the project doesn't make sense in the abstract, but once you submit to it, it works. This is basically an 80's go-for-it movie (the picture feels like some odd combination of ''Flashdance'' and ''Purple Rain''), and the director, Curtis Hanson, working with a screenplay by Scott Silver, has done a fine job of giving it a soul, though it's a gloomy, peeling-paint one. Even though the protagonist is named Jimmy Smith, the thoughtful ''8 Mile'' is a raw version of the rapper's own story. The film's star, Eminem, doesn't appear to have a great deal of range, but he can play himself. This may be the final frontier for pop, more unbelievable than the prospect of launching a member of 'N Sync into orbit. THE mission of ''8 Mile'' is essentially to garner sympathy for a white rapper involved in an old-school shootout - a rap contest.
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