Review: ‘Vantage Point’

Travis:

Have you ever had the experience of riding in a car, as a passenger, traveling at a pretty good speed and suddenly the driver decides to slam on the breaks? All is well and the driver takes off again, a little bit faster, then suddenly slams the breaks on again. Now, imagine having this happen eight times in a row. Sure, it could be scary, but most likely it would just get a tad annoying. As much as I enjoyed Vantage Point, this is often how I felt while sitting as a passenger of the theatre watching this fast-paced movie.

Vantage Point, directed by first-timer Pete Travis, is an action-packed thrill ride about a small group of terrorists plotting to kill the President of the United States of America. The story is structured to depict the events which unfold as seen through the eyes of eight different individuals. The movie is sort of like the television show 24, except much more realistic. The only problem is that it is told in a way that keeps pulling the viewer out of the story. If you’ve ever seen Mike Figgis’ Timecode, you may understand how frustrating it can be to have experimental plot structure get in the way of telling a story. It isn’t that bad in Vantage Point, but you get the idea.

Dennis Quaid (In Good Company) plays secret service agent Thomas Barnes, who fills the role of the main character. He is central to the plot and to the ultimate outcome of the story. William Hurt (History of Violence) plays the President, Matthew Fox (We Are Marshall) plays agent Kent Taylor, Sigourney Weaver (Be Kind Rewind) plays a TV news producer and Forest Whitaker (Great Debaters) plays an American on vacation who captures the whole thing on Handi-Cam. Their are many other characters as well, all of whom fit into the course of events in some way. The audience is geared up with adrenaline as the action moves to a point of discovery made by the central character of that particular vantage point. Then we are abruptly forced in fast-rewind to the beginning and given a 24-style countdown on a black screen which leads into the next vantage point and we begin the process again, and again, and again …

Hang on. Don’t let this turn you off the film. I still think it has a lot to offer, but the editing choices simply make the movie work to hard to get to where its going. Vantage Point is basically a really good action-suspense movie trying to be some creative new approach to making a genre film that doesn’t really need fixing. Honestly, this movie has some really great action, especially the car chase between Dennis Quaid and one of the conspirators. In addition, the concept of the structure itself was interesting and theoretically a nice touch. Unfortunately, the director’s choices of how to employ this theory doesn’t really work as well as I’m sure was intended. Overall, Vantage Point is entertaining and worth your $6-10 dollars to see in the theatre, but it does ask that you suspend your cinematic criticism a bit more than we’d normally prefer.

[rating: 3.5/5]