2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
"Vantage Point" exciting but absurd
By: Brad Canze
Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: Lifeline
"Vantage Point" is not a movie that could be classified as a "thinker."
The movie starts with a sensational set-up which escalates throughout many twists and turns to the point of becoming absurd.
The basic premise is the president of the United States (William Hurt) is attending a peace summit in Spain. Despite the efforts of his Secret Service men (including Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox), the president is seemingly shot and killed in a plaza where he was to deliver a speech.
The event is witnessed by television cameras, a tourist with a camcorder (Forrest Whitaker), and a mother with a little girl, among others.
As to be expected, things are not what they seem with the disastrous incidents.
The main concept of the movie is seeing the events through the points of view of eight different characters, and each viewpoint reveals more details of the machinations behind the attack.
While an interesting concept, the film boils down to an hour of watching the same scenes over and over, with slight permutations each time.
It's intriguing to see what the small details mean from all the other points of view, and how that slowly reveals the truth of the situation, but the resolution is not substantial enough to justify the unforgiving repetition of events.
The last half-hour of the film completely drops the repetitious format of the previous hour, and builds up to an exciting conclusion to the situation.
The narrative of the movie is indeed a situation, rather than a story. You are told what is happening, but not who these characters are, what they learn, or what everything ultimately means.
While this movie may leave the audience buzzing with adrenaline at the conclusion, anybody hoping for an overall end point will be disappointed.
The acting is solid throughout from the majority of the ensemble cast. Dennis Quaid plays a tense, slightly paranoid Secret Service agent suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and creates a likable character the audience can relate with better than any other in the film.
Forrest Whitaker plays the moral compass of the film, and is believable and charismatic. Whitaker is all but incapable of being anything but magnetic in any film that features him.
Less fortunate is Matthew Fox as Quaid's cohort in the Secret Service. He is not all that believable, and never stands out as someone the audience hates our loves, although the movie tries to make the audience take a stance on him.
Fox submits a completely vanilla performance.
There's not much character development, story resolution, or an ultimate point to the plot, but for people that want to see chases, car crashes, and shoot-outs without having to bother with characters or story, "Vantage Point" will satisfy in that regard.
Three out of five stars
The movie starts with a sensational set-up which escalates throughout many twists and turns to the point of becoming absurd.
The basic premise is the president of the United States (William Hurt) is attending a peace summit in Spain. Despite the efforts of his Secret Service men (including Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox), the president is seemingly shot and killed in a plaza where he was to deliver a speech.
The event is witnessed by television cameras, a tourist with a camcorder (Forrest Whitaker), and a mother with a little girl, among others.
As to be expected, things are not what they seem with the disastrous incidents.
The main concept of the movie is seeing the events through the points of view of eight different characters, and each viewpoint reveals more details of the machinations behind the attack.
While an interesting concept, the film boils down to an hour of watching the same scenes over and over, with slight permutations each time.
It's intriguing to see what the small details mean from all the other points of view, and how that slowly reveals the truth of the situation, but the resolution is not substantial enough to justify the unforgiving repetition of events.
The last half-hour of the film completely drops the repetitious format of the previous hour, and builds up to an exciting conclusion to the situation.
The narrative of the movie is indeed a situation, rather than a story. You are told what is happening, but not who these characters are, what they learn, or what everything ultimately means.
While this movie may leave the audience buzzing with adrenaline at the conclusion, anybody hoping for an overall end point will be disappointed.
The acting is solid throughout from the majority of the ensemble cast. Dennis Quaid plays a tense, slightly paranoid Secret Service agent suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and creates a likable character the audience can relate with better than any other in the film.
Forrest Whitaker plays the moral compass of the film, and is believable and charismatic. Whitaker is all but incapable of being anything but magnetic in any film that features him.
Less fortunate is Matthew Fox as Quaid's cohort in the Secret Service. He is not all that believable, and never stands out as someone the audience hates our loves, although the movie tries to make the audience take a stance on him.
Fox submits a completely vanilla performance.
There's not much character development, story resolution, or an ultimate point to the plot, but for people that want to see chases, car crashes, and shoot-outs without having to bother with characters or story, "Vantage Point" will satisfy in that regard.
Three out of five stars
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