‘Worth’ Reminds Us Of The Value Of Life On September 11th Anniversary

One week ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Netflix releases the true story Worth, a film more than a decade in the making. Little Accidents and The Kindergarten Teacher filmmaker Sara Colangelo directs from a script by Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, and Godzilla vs Kong screenwriter Max Borenstein, delivering a meditative and heartfelt exploration of how the way we value human life reflects our own humanity.

Financials remain a guessing game, since Worth’s day-and-date release in limited theatrical and on Netflix streaming occurs in an ongoing pandemic — a fact that obviously affects box office results, regardless of how much certain dubiously motivated entertainment journalists pretend COVID isn’t a significant reason for lower ticket sales when it’s a film their outlet is rooting against, or a studio that hasn’t properly earned the favor of said journo before their, ahem, deadline.

Suffice to say, Worth isn’t a film made for box office receipts. It was a labor of love, first and foremost, for Borenstein, and is an early entrant for award season buzz. That said, with the 9/11 anniversary and positive reception from critics — it stands at 78% on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing — there is potential for PVOD and deals for streaming/cable/broadcast television to generate enough for a modestly budgeted film of this sort to break even or turn some profit. Time will tell.

Worth portrays the events surrounding creation and completion of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, and depicts the work and emotional awakening of attorney Kenneth Feinberg, Special Master of the fund. The truths it reveals are heartbreaking and heartwarming, frustrating and uplifting, straightforward and mind-boggling, sometimes at different moments and sometimes all at once.

Feinberg tries to focus on the cold calculations and math to determine the value of each human life lost in the terrorist attacks or to the immediate aftermath, with the underlying original intent of the fund being to prevent lawsuits against the airline industry that might bankrupt them and send the economy into further decline. This creates a great deal of conflict, animosity, and difficulty for everyone involved, be it Feinberg’s team or the families who are stunned at his initial distance and coolness toward them and their concerns.

But slowly and surely, he and his team are moved by — and then begin to champion — the stories of the families left behind, with the realization that when we devalue the lives of others we surrender some portion of our own humanity. The reverse, it turns out, is also true — that in finding the universal value and importance of all life, we redeem ourselves and embrace our own humanity.

The story avoids directly portraying the main events of the 9/11 attacks, with only a brief opening sequence about that tragic morning to set the main story in motion. This is a legal procedural and character drama, and Michael Keaton gives a performance as Feinberg that’s sure to generate Oscar buzz. He walks a fine line between the practiced detachment his job typically demands and a growing inner emotional turmoil as he confronts the simple fact that his numbers represent human lives that are part of a wide tapestry of love and loss.

Keaton’s accent, mannerisms, and emotional tug-of-war are crucial to making the audience connect with him despite his reluctance to open himself up to the grief and suffering of survivors. It’s one of his best recent performances, nuanced and complicated, allowing us to be mad at him and even resent him at times, which elevates the importance and impact of his arc (a strange term to apply to a real-life situation, I realize).

The supporting cast do exceptional work as well, particularly Amy Ryan as Feinberg’s legal partner Camille Biros, Stanley Tucci as widower Charles Wolf, Laura Benanti as widow Karen Abate, and Chris Tardio as firefighter/survivor Frank Donato.

Benanti in particular is a revelation of knotted feelings and shattered life as she navigates the nightmare of losing her life partner, of watching as the government’s primary concern is for the airline industry, as her story and loss are sidelined in the early stages of the fund’s report, and as she must make gut-wrenching decisions about whether to accept a payoff and to extend that payment to certain others.

The result is a remarkable story about what it is to be human and to discover your own humanity reflected in the humanity of others. The worth of a human life, then, first begins with the question, “How much is our own life worth to us?” And we all know the answer, so the only remaining question is whether we can value the lives of others just as much, by seeing ourselves in their stories.

Worth is an important entry in the cinematic pantheon of 9/11 films, moving beyond the events of that day and the terror of those moments into the fear and pain that continued afterward. But it is also a redemptive message about coming together in times of great sorrow, to find comfort and to comfort others, to recognize and embrace our worth together.

You can read my interview with Worth screenwriter Max Borenstein here. We discussed his then-new project Godzilla vs. Kong, as well as Worth and other projects.