Vantage Point review

Regardless of which vantage point you view this, it is not good. Inspired by the classic Rashomon, which recounts a crime from four different perspectives, Vantage Point attempts the same concept, this time the incident is the assassination of U.S. President Ashton (William Hurt) viewed by eight people. However, as we embark on each person's new interpretation, the clock is wound back, and instead of emulating Kurosawa's 1950 thriller, it more closely resembles the 1993 Bill Murray comedy Groundhog Day, though not as funny and infinitely more irritating.

The genius of Rashomon is providing four conflicting viewpoints, whereas Vantage Point simply reveals more information each time. The annoying aspect comes from the fact that along with the new footage, we endure endless repeats of the same scenes. With every rewinding of the clock to the point minutes before the shooting, the audience's groans grew louder. In addition to being unwieldly, seeing eight different viewpoints is unnecessary. Had screenwriter Barry Levy focused his story more, he could have eliminated half the people's viewpoints, many of which are superfluous.

Ashton is assassinated when making a public appearance at an anti-terrorist summit in Spain. Included among those whose vantage point we view the incident are two secret service agents, Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox), an American tourist Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker) and TV producer Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver). Barnes assumes the film's central role. After returning to service having taken a bullet for the president during an earlier assassination attempt, his nerves are frayed, with potential threats everywhere he looks.

That the U.S. President's assassination is the focal point is almost incidental for all the political relevance it has to the storyline. There is some vague mention of a terrorist cell in Morocco, but no motive is ascribed to his shooting. Indeed, finding motives for much of what takes place is unclear. With so many people's stories to tell, simply determining who to invest in becomes an issue. In the end it's hard to care about what happens to anyone.

Under the guidance of Peter Travis, making his big screen directorial debut, Vantage Point set out to be a sophisticated thriller, but the fact it ends up resorting to a long and uninspired car chase suggests that even those involved recognized its failure to achieve its lofty ambitions.

Kevin Murphy