Pros: Great acting by all concerned.
Cons: Too many plot holes; somewhat predictable.
The Bottom Line: Despite Vantage Points glaring flaws I found myself liking the film at least enough to give it a weak nod.
Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie''s plot. A really intelligent movie is getting hard and harder to find in Hollywood’s modern day repertoire. There was a time when that was practically all Tinseltown produced, but somewhere along our journey into the 21st century, movies have gotten progressively airy and require less brain power to mentally digest. I have to admit there are times when I enjoy the witless movie as much as the next guy, but not all the time! Even the movie that promise intellectual stimulation only go so far and then, the brain balloon pops, and the treaded formulaic plot lines escape thus ruining the movie.
Such is the case with Vantage Point, the political thriller that looks at the attempted assassination of the U.S. President from 8 different perspectives. Vantage Point wants so badly to tell a story of intelligent intrigue, human drama, national arrogance, and international anger, but somewhere along the way the writers forgot to parley with reality. The result: a script full of very discernable holes in a movie that is entertaining, but barley so.
The Story
Directed by newbie Pete Travis Vantage Point’s, first point of view comes from corporate American in the guise of GNN (Global News Network – one has to guess) as director/ news producer Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver – Alien, Ghost Busters, Working Girl) watches live camera footage of a world summit in which the President is supposed to speak unfold. The summit, which takes place in Spain of all places, is a historical event in which the Western nations align with Arab states in an all-out effort to combat global terrorism.
The opening is actually exciting to watch as reporter Angie Jones (Zoe Saldana – Drumline, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Six Degrees) tries to interleave some local responses to the summit into her reporting but is shut down by a network only interested in the American perspective. This segment takes about 10 minutes to develop and then President Ashton (William Hurt – Body Heat, The Accidental Tourist, Jane Eyre) is shot.
Rewind; the second perspective begins as Secret Service agent Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid – Stripes, Enemy Mine, Any Given Sunday), who was shot protecting the President, gets ready to lay his life on the line once more. This is his first detail after the shooting and he has his partner Kent Taylor (Mathew Fox – Lost, We Are Marshall) to thank. This segment also takes about ten minutes to unfold and as the movie’s title implies Barnes’ perspective lends a deeper understanding of the plot vis-à-vis his vantage point, as more of the pieces to the puzzle are put into place. The next six rewinds take the viewer deeper and deeper into the plot, as the assassination is viewed by Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker - Platoon, Panic Room, The Last King of Scotland), Veronica (Ayelet Zurer), Enrique (Eduardo Noriega)—the man in the middle—among others play their part in the master plot devised by Suarez (Said Taghmaoui – Sleeper Cell).
My Thoughts
With a roster of notable stars Vantage Point should have been a solid film. And indeed it starts out promising enough, but as the story unwinds the plot holes become more glaring and frequent. For example: in one segment a lone terrorist was able to gain access to the President’s room by climbing stairs un-haunted as it were by the Secret Service; seriously! And of course those Secret Service agents he did encounter were easily dispatched; again seriously! At one point Howard Lewis observes a man standing in the window of a building that was supposed to be empty, yet none of the plethora of Secret Service and Spanish Police saw the man despite their massive numbers on the roofs of nearby buildings, and on the ground looking for just such a thing saw nothing; do I have to say it?
Despite the films somewhat unique approach, Vantage Point is infused with formulaic plot twists and characters; enough to make the film mostly predictable. And the ending stretches the imagination almost to the breaking point, but I suppose it acts as a catalyst for a number of characters to play the Great American Hero, but the outcome is far too contrived to be remotely believable.
But, despite Vantage Point’s glaring flaws I found myself liking the film at least enough to give it a weak nod and advise the populace to go see it at least at a half price venue like my spouse and I did. Recognizing and acknowledging that truly great American films are few and far between these days, I have to take my entertainment when and where I can!
Recommended:
Yes
Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older
