Vantage Point – C

In theaters. 90 Minutes Rated PG-13.

Dennis Quaid is a secret service agent protecting the President of the United States (William Hurt) while he makes a speech in Spain. An assassination attempt is witnessed from several view points including a TV director (Sigourney Weaver) and a tourist (Forrest Whitaker). While the film takes this basic premise from Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa’s 1951 film), it presents filmed evidence of the event, thus providing an objective account. Rashomon has 4 characters telling the same story and the changes in the stories challenge the viewer with the nature of reality and truth. The only thing challenging about Vantage Point is trying to figure out how someone of Forrest Whitaker’s size can keep up with a speeding car chase on foot. (Click below for more lapses in logic)

If you’re going to present 5-6 accounts of the same event, it would be interesting to change up the lighting, editing, camera angles – whatever, instead of filming them all the same way. The greatest directing addition is rewinding the film to start each story at 11:59. This gets old by the 3rd time. The characters are interesting in their short segments and most of the actors are adequate in their limited roles, but nobody really stands out. Since the film is presented objectively, there’s nothing to think about except watching the events unfold, and then you’re merely stuck with the typical twists and turns of a modern Hollywood movie.But the twists are only there for their own sake – the whole movie comes down to Quaid and a single piece of video. It would be more interesting if he had to piece all the videos/points-of-view together to figure it out. The car chase scene at the end is exciting enough but the climax has all the characters in the same place whether they were on foot or driving. I can get past Quaid not reloading after 50 or so shots, but sometimes the suspension of disbelief is too heavy to carry. C