It takes a little while for "Bringing Out the Dead" to work. Scorsese's film is very cinematic, so at first it seems like he's trying too hard. The lighting, cinematography, sets and props all seems so choreographed, so purposeful, that it distracts from the film.

Of course, the star is Nick Cage, and it's hard to distract from him for very long. Cage's presence dominates the film and he vies for your attention in almost diamentrically opposed porportions to Scorsese's cinematics. But Cage's and the director's struggle, like a marvelous yet unusual symphony, soon seems to stop being cacaphonous screeching and begins to be harmonious mesh. It gels. And then film begins to ascend the rungs to the heights of heavenly bliss.

Cage is an ambulance driver who has seen it all. Working in the worst part of New York City has dragged him down into it's depths, lierally and figuratively. When the film talks of the "ghosts" that plague Cage's driver, they aren't talking about apparitions but about inner demons. Scorsese wisely manifests these to the physical so that we see the doubts and turmoil that possesses Cage's driver. We are caught up in the flux that is his daily life. We see what he feels.

In juxtaposition to this, the film wisely adds several humerous yet real characters to crosscut with Cage giving the film a marvellous wavering feel. Cage has a different partner in the ambulence with him every night. John Goodman and Tom Sizemore do wonderful jobs in this capacity. But it is the cigar chomping Ving Rhames in the midsection of the film which truly blows everything up to the highest possible numerator. Rhames is unafraid to seem campy here and the viewer is rewarded with a performance that dives deep into Cage's psyche and drags out all that hopefullness and inner light he is dying to feel. It brings him close to the brink without driving him quite to it.

Patricia Arequette is perfect as the love interest. Unusual and surreal, Arequette is also bold here. Never afraid to seem unattractive, her mousey loser becomes the perfect object for Cage's wants and needs. They fit like a glove. There is a scene where they are riding in the back of an ambulence, where Natalie Merchant's "These Are the Days" swells in the soundtrack, that is simply wonderful. Coming from an emotionally trying situation, the two in the scene, where they sway in unison seemingly unaware of the pop music score, and often weaving dangerously close to each other while riding, are perfectly romantic. It shows such hope and promise without a word being uttered. It's beautiful.

Scorsese has crafted a film here that isn't afraid to be cinematic or showy and yet it has a heart within that longs for simplicity and understanding. Scorsese creates a world which is more than just an insomniac's vision of urban life gone mad. It goes deeper. There is a scene where Cage moves a pile of debris while in a decaying basement and a pair of eyes peer out from under the rubble. Scorsese, in showing us all the filth of the city, reminds us that under the trash there is a person inside. The city is still alive, hiding, waiting, hoping. The world still exists, but it is afraid. "Bringing Out the Dead" quells the fears, quashes the paranoia, stills our racing hearts. In the midst of all the chaos and insanity and debris and stench, there is hope and love and life. It's a cinematic alchemist's drug. Truly a beautiful and unique film.

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