“Vantage Point” is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, some disturbing images and brief strong language.
Tempo grade: C
The trailer for this movie was by far one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. Suspenseful, action-packed and intriguing, it knocked my socks off almost as much as the one for “Cloverfield.”
Alas, the pay off wasn’t as good.
Still, this is a relatively serviceable thriller , but only if you can wrap your brain around the clunky conceit of its design. Director Peter Travis, making his feature film debut after working on television movies, executes a plot that quickly kicks into overdrive and then grinds to a halt at its apex, rewinds back to the beginning and then does it again from a different character’s point of view. Again, and again.
It’s so frustrating, I’m sure a lot of people can come up with their own, ahem, analogies involving romantic encounters.
The action involves a visit by a United States President (William Hurt) to Salamanca, Spain where he plans to make an important policy statement regarding the war on terror. An assassination attempt suddenly turns the scene into utter chaos, followed by a huge explosion. Veteran Secret Service Agent Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid), who already took a bullet once before for the chief executive, hits the ground running in search for the shooter. What he doesn’t know, and what we gradually come to understand via several rewinds, is that a complicated conspiracy has been launched.
Caught up in the action are a TV director (Sigourney Weaver), a fellow Secret Service agent (Matthew Fox), an American tourist (Forrest Whitaker) and various innocent and not-so innocent bystanders and conspirators. While I applaud Travis’s courage to think outside the box, the effort was wasted on an audience who usually like their thrillers quick and to the point.
I know, there’s another analogy lurking there too.
This review is published in the Feb. 28, 2008 edition of Tempo, the arts and entertainment magazine of The Taos News. See it and more online at www.taosnews.com.
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