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Vantage Point
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The political thriller Vantage Point explores a terrorist attack in
We quickly learn that the man shot in the public square doubles for the President; additionally, the terrorists who shot the presidential double set off two bombs. Is this public destruction or do they have a subtler plan?
Dennis Quaid plays the heroic Secret Service agent who spearheads the discovery of the truth, but he by no means carries the film. Instead, the film retells the first twenty minutes of action five times, each from one individual’s ‘vantage point’ that provides new information. Multiple retellings of a narrative are always difficult to execute, requiring the viewer to wade through previously-told, superfluous information in order to discover those moments that propel the plot. This movie increases the audience’s frustration in the narrative by visually rewinding each perspective before moving on to a new analysis. By the second rewind the audience sounded restless, and by the fifth I heard laughs of annoyance.
Free of sex and surprisingly tasteful in its depiction of violence (rated PG-13 for the violent subject matter and some language), Vantage Point nevertheless fails to thrill. Plot holes abound, driven by inconsistencies of character and action. The movie asks us to believe that every president has a double but that no Secret Service agent wears a bullet proof vest, that a special services officer is more intimidated by five lone terrorists than he is by the collected forces of the President’s security guards. Ultimately the array of illogical plot points overpowers the film, making more of a comedy than a thriller.
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Topic: Movies & TV, Reviews |  |
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Keywords: Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Vantage Point, William Hurt |  |
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Reporters? choice
There was a film called “The Valley Of Elah” which also failed but was really a good story.
My husband and I viewed this movie Friday night. Perhaps it was the thrill of being out without the children, but we both thouroughly enjoyed it. I have to admit that we only read what we had to about the film so that we didn’t know everything that was coming. Too many movie trailers ruin the experience by revealing too much these days. I liked the different point of views, though the rewind was a bit much since you had to do it so many times. Perhaps I won’t like it as much when I’ve viewed it more on DVD, but as usual, I didn’t care for the critics’ rating - one star. Certainly not a 5 star movie, but maybe a 2 or 3…
We saw the movie last week, and I thought it was a good movie. I actually enjoyed watching the events from different points of view, so the rewinds were interesting to me. I also liked Dennis Quaid in the movie.