“Vantage Point” – Joanna Langfield reviews

Vantage Point

This clumsy thriller makes you appreciate Rashomon all the more. Like the film that undoubtedly inspired it, this one shares the perspective of different people, all of whom have witnessed an assassination attempt on the President of the United States. Unfortunately, that’s about where the comparisons end.

Not that there isn’t a lot going on here. We’ve got a sleek Matthew Fox contrasting the shaky Dennis Quaid, as the Secret Service men assigned to protect the good guy President (William Hurt), Forest Whitaker, as The Best American Tourist There Ever Was, TV director Sigourney Weaver, screaming to her crew “Get me something; I’m dyin’ here!” and all sorts of undeveloped ethnic types, committing all sorts of acts of terrorism. Although the film runs a brisk 90 minutes or so, much of it is devoted to rewinding the film, to make the point that “ok, now we’re going to see what happened according to this guy”. The first few times we see that, well, ok, but, about a half hour into the screening I attended, a young man sitting next to me announced, loudly, “OK! I’m hating this movie now. This is annoying!” He got up and left. Most of the rest of us stayed; many, laughing often and out loud at the preposterous proceedings.