Hollywood
must have a thing about assassinating their President; and Vantage
Point has yet another attempt. It tries hard to live up to
the promise of the first reel, and does a passable job until the
last reel when the wheels drop off with a flag-waving matinee
ending. It sets out to be a fast moving action thriller with a
unique if complex story structure. Some have compared it to the
Japanese classic Rashomon, which is not quite the same
biscuit. In Rashomon, four witnesses to a murder give
their own differing versions of that event, whereas here each
view point actually adds to the sum of information we need to
solve the puzzle.
You’re whipped into the action quickly, watching
monitors in a outside broadcast van where a harassed TV producer
(Sigourney Weaver) is covering CNN style the arrival of the President
of the United States at a Summit on Global Terrorism in Salamanca
Spain. Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) a year earlier took a bullet
protecting the President is with Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox) two
Secret Service Agents on detail guarding the President (William
Hurt) at the opening ceremony.
Without warning the President is shot; followed
by a bomb blast in the vast crowd. Hell breaks lose. But all is
not as it seems. In the crowd taking videos of the ceremony is
tourist Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker), he thinks he’s captured
the sniper on his camera. In a series of flash backs seen though
the eyes of eight witnesses to the event including the President,
a little more of the shocking truth is exposed each time.
Matthew Fox - that poor sod forever 'lost' on Looney
Island - has a reprieve for the big screen. His acting ability
is not stretched very greatly here either. But he does what he
can with the action stuff paired up with Dennis Quaid (Smart
People) holding on to a grimly bewildered expression. William
Hurt (Into The Wild) gives the presidential person a
degree of dignity all lost in the sadly improbable end sequence.
Sigourney Weaver (The Girl in the Park) seems the most
believable character, while Forest Whitaker tries not to look
like Idi Amin on holiday doing amazing things with his video camera.
Hey this isn’t about acting awards its about action. And
there is much of that - although oft repeated, which is one of
the weaknesses. The very cleverness of the story structure is
also its Achilles heel.
At
the helm we have Pete Travis, making the move from TV where he
directed the Emmy winning Henry VIII with Ray Winstone.
Travis does what he can to bring Barry Levy’s complicated
if inventive script together but his pacing isn’t always
on the ball. The photography is up to standard, although an annoying
fuzziness in the wide shots is no doubt due to digital corrections
as while set in Spain the film is actually shot in Mexico. Perhaps
with a couple of script changes they could have staged the story
there in the first place. Would have saved a lot of CGI.. Editing
is of the madly frantic variety trying to keep the pulses racing,
but sometimes at the cost of action clarity.
Full marks for the impact of the powerful early
scenes, capturing something of the panic of a terror attack. It’s
good stuff and even after a couple of repeats stands up well.
But it does get a bit tiresome seeing it over and over, even with
additional clues each run. It all leads to a quite breathtaking
car chase sequence complete with some close calls and a child
in dire peril, that has been edited into tiny bits so it’s
sometimes hard to see exactly what’s happening. Plus it’s
a whisker long for suspense to hold up.
So a number of misjudged aspects weaken what is
basically an OK thriller with a contemporary terrorist plot. However
I think action fans will still get a kick out of it. There are
some genuinely thrilling moments.
Hollywood
must have a thing about assassinating their President; and Vantage
Point has yet another attempt. It tries hard to live up to
the promise of the first reel, and does a passable job until the
last reel when the wheels drop off with a flag-waving matinee
ending. It sets out to be a fast moving action thriller with a
unique if complex story structure. Some have compared it to the
Japanese classic Rashomon, which is not quite the same
biscuit. In Rashomon, four witnesses to a murder give
their own differing versions of that event, whereas here each
view point actually adds to the sum of information we need to
solve the puzzle. 
At
the helm we have Pete Travis, making the move from TV where he
directed the Emmy winning Henry VIII with Ray Winstone.
Travis does what he can to bring Barry Levy’s complicated
if inventive script together but his pacing isn’t always
on the ball. The photography is up to standard, although an annoying
fuzziness in the wide shots is no doubt due to digital corrections
as while set in Spain the film is actually shot in Mexico. Perhaps
with a couple of script changes they could have staged the story
there in the first place. Would have saved a lot of CGI.. Editing
is of the madly frantic variety trying to keep the pulses racing,
but sometimes at the cost of action clarity.