Vantage Point
Vantage Point is an interesting movie. The film’s time structure is akin to that of Kurosawa’s Rashomon, in that the story unfolds in flashbacks from various points of view. Unlike Rashomon, however, the accounts do not vary in their truthfulness but rather in their perspective. Vantage Point details an assassination attempt on the President of the United States and loops the 23-minute period of the attempt over and over again, each time shifting perspectives until hitting the climax of the film in which everything comes together.
Director Pete Travis makes his first studio film with Vantage Point and it proves to be a rather daring and interesting project. Travis’ ambition for the movie is clear and it is well shot and well directed, for the most part. His ability to stress the various perspectives of the situation is in fact quite lucid, as the accounts do not differ in their filming style but only in their viewpoint. Other films have played with the idea of viewpoint, but most rely on different filming styles (i.e. different colour themes to represent different characters) to demonstrate the various characters and perspectives. Travis chooses to let things play out as typical, only offering diverse points of view and not assorted paths by which to see them.
Vantage Point succeeds in pulling off the narrative style because it keeps things simple in terms of style. Unfortunately, the plot inhabits far too much space to be constructive. The idea here is that there is an assassination attempt on the President (William Hurt) and various actors are in motion on both sides of the attempt. The truth is buried in the perspectives, as expected, and each time the film loops back to a new point of view, a different piece of the puzzle is exposed. In that respect, it works out well and it is entertaining to see different pieces of truth as the film goes along.
The problem comes not with the arrangement of the puzzle pieces but with the completed product itself. When all of the pieces of the puzzle are in place, the end result is unbelievably drawn-out and tangled. Vantage Point piles twist on top of twist, unnecessarily complicating the tale with different components. The characters, while at first compelling enough, become subject to the twists and turns as well and I found myself losing interest in the procedure of actually gaining information since it turned out that most of the information I picked up from the diverse perspectives was subject to immediate (and often silly) change.
The performances are all quite good, from Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox as Secret Service agents to Forest Whitaker as an American tourist with a video camera. Eduardo Noriega is good as a police officer dispatched to protect the mayor and Sigourney Weaver is decent but relatively useless as the producer of a CNN-type broadcast team covering the President in Spain. Ayelet Zurer, a popular Israeli actress, is striking as one of the terrorists.
The pacing of Vantage Point is quite good, although some of the narratives do bog down with repetition in spite of the different perspectives. The film is quite quick at 90 minutes and the tension is shattered in the last fifteen minutes or so with a mechanical but effective car chase. Make no mistake about it, Vantage Point is an action thriller. It does not feature chases or sequences that are as good as those in the Bourne series of films or most other giants of the genre, but it doesn’t have to in order to be appealing and energetic. Some scenes require a complete surrender to the material, but that’s why audiences go to the movies in the first place.
There are loopholes, some of the plot feels tacked on and gratuitous, the final depiction of the situation is exceedingly elaborate, some moments are really cheesy, and the bulk of the action is formulaic and unoriginal. Yet somehow, I enjoyed Vantage Point. I liked it for its bravery, its method, and the way it doesn’t allow its technique to divert from the general narrative. With a more complete and basic plot, Travis’ little film would have made a solid action thriller. As such, I’m still recommending it based on what works in the film.
Trailer:
