Movie Review: Vantage Point

Fifty years after Japanese master Akira Kurosawa made his classic Rashomon, in which the same event is shown from a number of different angles, the same technique is applied to Vantage Point, which opens in the UK this weekend.

I say technique, but in the case of this silly thriller, gimmick is a better word. The event in question is the attempted assassination of the US President, played by William Hurt, at an anti-terrorism summit in Spain. We see it from the perspective of eight individuals, including Dennis Quaid's Secret Service agent, Sigourney Weaver's newswoman and Forest Whittaker's camcorder-wielding tourist.

Vantage Point is very much a post-24 action thriller, with jerky handheld camera work, sweaty FBI agents running around and an attempt to make it feel like everything's happening in real time. Unfortunately, the other film that you're reminded of is Groundhog Day, as every ten minutes we get the same timeclock up on screen, and see the assassination from yet another point of view.

Aside from a couple of twists, there's very little here that couldn't have been done with a regular narrative. Except of course that would resulted in a 15-minute movie...

First-time director Peter Travis has been given a top-notch ensemble cast to work with, but none really make any effort beyond showing up to collect their pay cheques, and we wonder how a film starring three one-time Oscar nominees could be quite so lame.

The plot really is a mess, and the sheer number of contrivances that scriptwriter Barry Levy uses to get all the principle characters in the same location for the climax makes Paul Haggis' Crash seem like Inland Empire. Travis is no Paul Greengrass when it comes to action direction, although he does earn the distinction of putting the year's worst-edited car chase on screen.

Vantage Point is fast-paced and noisy enough that it does entertain on a basic level, but there are much better ways to spend eight lots of ten minutes this weekend.

And if running, driving and shooting politicians isn't your idea of a fun night out then check out our other review of the week, George Romero's latest zombie flick Diary of the Dead. Click on the link to the right of the page.