A real-time thriller, Vantage Point obviously hopes it will be the big-screen's answer to 24 , and its generous U.S. box office takings prove that it might just have filled the void left in fans' scheduling by the recent writers strike.
That would be the only explanation for why such an average and somewhat derivative film has fared so well.
Set in and around a world peace summit in Spain, Vantage Point tells its tale from various different viewpoints, offering separate takes on events as it slowly reveals more and more of the full story (a "Point Of Vantage" style coined "the Rashomon effect" after Akira Kurosawa's influential 1950 film).
Beginning with some in-camera American news network coverage before reversing 23 minutes through time and starting afresh from the new perspective of Jack Bauer-lite Secret Service agent, Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid— American Dreamz ) and his sidekick Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox—TV's Lost ), we witness first hand experiences of an assassination attempt on the President of the United States (played by William Hurt— Mr. Brooks ).
Returning again to the beginning of the events, repeating scenes almost verbatim and then adding just a little bit more, Vantage Point subjects the viewer to the POVs of Spanish plain clothes cop Enrique (Eduardo Noriega— The Devil's Backbone ), Forest Whittaker's ( The Last King of Scotland ) camera happy tourist, Hurt's fictional US President (you can tell he's fictional because he's magnanimous) and finally the perpetrators of the attack.
Initially interesting, Vantage Point 's gimmicky plot quickly becomes repetitive with a tiresome succession of the same scenes (and often the very same shots—what, they couldn't afford a couple of different angles?) played over and over again. Increasingly ludicrously, as all the various plot threads and interlinking characters begin to entwine towards the big climax, the movie goes to contrived places where even the OTT 24 wouldn't dare tread.
Also, far less clever than it thinks it is, Vantage Point contains one of those so-signposted-it-hurts twists that any discerning viewer will have guessed right from the start, and some seriously cringe-worthy, shoe-horned-in moments of barbed, pseudo-political over statement.
On the plus side, the film contains a couple of semi-exciting, Bourne -inspired, action scenes that will arouse a modicum of interest in the least demanding of viewers.
The best of these are the assassination attempt, which is intensely realised, but becomes a bit dull upon multiple repeat viewing. Then, during the ensuing melee, there's the storming of the Secret Service's operations base, which only just gets the blood pumping enough to stir you from the threat of 24 winks.
Two stars out of five
Feeds