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Vantage Point

Review By: Michael Dance
MichaelDance@TheCinemaSource.com

Vantage Point is a movie with no pretensions. It’s a throwback to the type of action flick that reigned before CGI took over everything – stunts, assassins, chases, you name it. If I was paying really close attention, I could probably point out a handful of logic goofs, or just ruminate on how ludicrous the plot is, but I’m not about to be picky – I was just along for the ride.

The ads tell you you’re going to see one event from eight different perspectives, but unless I counted wrong, it’s more like six. The film starts in a TV control booth, led by Sigourney Weaver, that’s covering a political summit held in a town square in Spain. The U.S. President (William Hurt) arrives, walks up to the podium, and is shot. In the ensuing panic, we hear a bomb go off a short distance away. Then a second bomb explodes, this time right in the square.

Then the film rewinds a half hour, and the events are played out again from a different point of view. And then again, and again. Miraculously, there’s not that much repetition, because as we follow the different characters, they take us out of the town square and into hotels, cafes, highways, and the dense surrounding city.

There’s Dennis Quaid, our hero, a secret service agent who’s back on the job after taking a bullet for the president just last year. Then there’s Eduardo Noriega, who claims to be the local protection for the city mayor and slowly begins to piece a terrorist plot together. Then Forest Whitaker, a tourist with a video camera. And Matthew Fox as Quaid’s secret service friend, and Edgar Ramirez as a former Special Forces agent coerced by the terrorist group.

I feel like a member of the advertising team when I say this, but it’s true that each time the story rewinds, we get a few more pieces of the puzzle; watching a story unfold in a series of surprises and twists is a lot of fun, and luckily the trailer – which seemed like it gave away the whole movie – leaves out a number of surprises. (It’s also fun to think ahead: based on which characters we’ve followed so far, clever viewers might be able to pick up on a key reversal before it’s revealed.)

And surprisingly, despite the different perspectives, the film is remarkably easy to follow. Some might say it’s almost too obvious – the words “blunt” and “unsubtle” come to mind – but again, this is simple, fun Hollywood entertainment.

The terrorist plot, once you see all the pieces put in place, is fairly elegant, although the complexity of it would, in reality, leave way too much room for error. ...