Vantage Point

Vantage Point is a high concept film that doesn’t really stick to its guns. Set during an international summit to combat ‘global terror’, the film essentially focuses on the same 20 minutes again and again, each time following a different character. It’s important to note that this isn’t a Rashomon-style outing, however – these aren’t personal retellings and are thus objective rather than subjective.

The US President (William Hurt) is making an historic speech in Salamanca, Spain when he is shot by an unseen assassin. The first segment focuses on the news crew covering the event, helmed by Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver), which is a clever way to open. We witness the proceedings for the first time well removed from the action. It’s interesting to note that Rex at one stage reprimands a reporter for injecting her own opinion into the report. The woman responds curtly that Rex expects her to ‘dumb it down’. That’s exactly what this film does. It apparently started as a script for the ’24’ movie, though even the sell-out, increasingly disappointing recent series of ’24’ wouldn’t tell a story quite so simplistically.

The twists are between mediocre and non-existent, and whilst I enjoyed the repetitious nature of the film (always rewinding to follow a different character through the same 20 minutes or so), the audience groaned every time the clock appeared on the screen, heralding midday and the start of another retelling.

The concept is a limiting one, and no easy task to write. Each mini-film has to include some new information, and not spend its time going over old ground. Vantage Point only partially succeeds in this department, and towards the end ignores the framework completely.

All that being said, the film’s pretty enjoyable in a brainless kind of way. It’s incredible – you inject a car chase with some snappy editing and a score reminiscent of the Bourne movies, and suddenly you have an exciting scene. Of course, this has none of the grittiness of that franchise – most of the time it looks like it was made for television, with its primary colours and overall ‘clean’ look. Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker et. al. make up a rather dull ensemble, but their characters don’t have enough time to grow (or even be established, really), since the film’s in such a hurry all the time.

Vantage Point is fun enough, just don’t expect Kurosawa.