Vantage Point Review
by Adam Weeks
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I was curious going into the theatre as to why I wasn't more excited about seeing Vantage Point
- on paper, it has a lot of stuff that should make for exciting
viewing, but.... well, I'm getting ahead of myself, so here's what you
can expect:
Vanatge Point
is about an attempted Presidential assassination that takes place in
Spain, and is told (repeatedly) from the point of view of several key
people that are witness to the attack. William Hurt plays President
Ashton, Dennis Quaid & Matthew Fox are both Secret Service agents
assigned to guard him, Forest Whitaker is tourist Howard Lewis,
Sigourney Weaver is Live Broadcast director Rex & Edgar Ramirez is
Javier, a young man with more than one reason to be involved in the mix.
Through
a series of Flashbacks & Flash-Forwards, we the audience begin to
get a bigger understanding of something that at first seems very
simple, and then diversifies into much bigger issues as the 90 minute
running time marches on.
And that, Ladies & Gentlemen, is as
complicated, and involved as you're likely to get (seriously, I could
drop another paragraph in here right now, and you would have the entire
movie laid out for you) it's an extremely shallow attempt at making
what could have been a top of the line thriller if it weren't for
several key faults.
What are those faults exactly? It's pretty simple to explain really - remember Brian De Palma's Snake Eyes
with Nicolas Cage & Gary Sinise? Picture that, but set in Spain -
oh, and drop most of the (admittedly weak the first time) character
development.... ummmmm, take away any sense of looming peril.......
You
may as well put a big black cloak on the bad guy, give him an Abe
Lincoln Hat, and make him twirl his moustache while threatening to
close down an Orphanage unless The Three Stooges can come up with the
money in time, and you're pretty close to the end product of Vantage Point - and don't forget to add some extra gaping plot holes just to balance it all out.
Overall,
it's just a pretty weak movie - the characters are so paper thin that
you just don't care about what happens to them, the giant leaps of
faith that are required on the part of the audience are fairly
inexcusable for the most part, and by the time the fairly brisk
run-time is over, you're left with the feeling of just having had sex
with an expenisve Hooker - the general sense of happiness is there, but
ultimately, you just feel dirty for having enjoyed it even a little bit.
Dennis Quaid is a guy I've had a love / hate relationship with for many years now, I think that In Good Company, Frequency & Flesh and Bone are extremely under-rated movies of his, and I thought he was great in flicks like Great Balls of Fire! & Innerspace. But this is purely a pay cheque for him here, and I out it in the same league as Yours, Mine and Ours as far as quality perfomances go.
Matthew Fox, who contrary to Knocked Up,
I do think there are many interesting things about - is given such
limited screen time & dialogue here that it could have been played
by any number of the background performers and wasn't worthy of the guy
who gave a great performance in We Are Marshall. William Hurt - again, coming off the back of a great role in Mr. Brooks is criminally underused.
The
biggest compliment I can pay to the cast however is by applauding
Forest Whitaker & Sigourney Weaver, who both must have received an
Industrial Dump-Truck of cash for taking on these parts - Weaver has
maybe 5 minutes of screen time, Whitaker has maybe 5 lines of dialogue
- again, both are waste, so I pray for them & their families that
they were paid extremely well for their time.
I feel bad ultimately for Vanatge Point
- it had every posible chance to become a great film: a Top-Notch cast,
a good premise, and some very stylish cinematography by Amir Mokri, but
unfortunately, it's all let down in the end by a very weak script - and
it can't dig its way out without it. 2 out
of 5 Vantage Point
Australian release: 13th March, 2008
Cast: Dennis Quaid, William Hurt, Matthew Fox, Sigourney Weaver, Forest Whitaker
Director: Pete Travis
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