We all like Vantage points:p don't we?. Review on Vantage Point Movie

I love mushy romantic

flicks on one side and on the other nail biters and edge of the seat thrillers

that pump up the adrenalin. I do love movies that show multiple perspectives of

the same event, and I love movies that mess around with timelines. When a film

shows something, and then jumps back in time to show it again from a different

point of view, it makes it all the more interesting.

"Vantage Point" does that with a terrorist

bombing, and every time the bomb goes off and the clock resets itself, I

actually smiled. If that is the wrong reaction to have to a terrorist bombing,

then I don't want to be right.

What you get from "Vantage Point" is a lot of vigorous actors -

Dennis Quaid, William Hurt, Forest Whitaker, et al. - doing vigorous work in

the service of a crafty, fast-moving, well-told story. Directed by Pete Travis

and written by Barry L. Levy

The movie starts off, in Salamanca,

Spain, where a

historic anti-terrorism summit is about to be capped off by a speech from U.S.

President Ashton(William Hurt). First our perspective is from the news control

van, where the director(Sigourney Weaver) and her crew fill us in on whatever back-story

we need - including that one of the Secret Service agents guarding Ashton is

Thomas Barnes(Dennis Quaid), who took a bullet for the president last year and

has been a little skittish ever since. The emotions of the on site reporter is

so tangible and when she dies one wants to say to Sigourney….”I told you so”

So it must be deja vu for Barnes when Ashton's speech is interrupted,

violently, by someone pumping two shots into him. Panic fills the crowded plaza

as Barnes and his fellow agent Taylor(Matthew Fox) scramble to get the

president to an ambulance and to find the shooter. Moments later, a bomb goes

off - and the movie pauses, rewinds, and says "23 minutes

earlier."

The story begins anew, this time from Barnes' perspective specifically, and

ending once again with the bomb. Then we go back again and follow a Spanish cop

named Enrique(Eduardo Noriega), then an American tourist(Forest Whitaker),

the president himself, a mysterious local(Saïd Taghmaoui), and so forth. Each

retelling reveals new facts.

As is nearly always the case with these things, the conspiracy as it's eventually

explained is outrageously elaborate, the type of scheme that requires the

evildoers to have some pretty serious foreknowledge and to do an awful lot of

lucky guessing. The dialogues could have been more powerful.

The effects of those deficiencies are offset, however, by the thrilling pace

and by the strength of the cast. Hammier actors might have ruined it; these old

pros take things seriously - a crucial element in getting the audience to

suspend its disbelief, given how implausible the whole story would be in the

real world. The movie's all about how you can see something with your own eyes

and still not know what really happened.

Dennis Quaid is named Bond, but unlike the original Bond his moves are slow

and lethargic and he looks jaded. Can’t believe I had a crush on him at one

time:). Forest Whitaker really suits the part of an American tourist to a T.He

looks dumb but has been recording and following all the events. His

interactions with the little girl, Anna are touching to say the least.

The car chase at the end of the movie really has your heart in your mouth.

But the scene where the villain steps on the brakes to save Anna is what made

it so unrealistic and brings you back to Earth with a bang. How can you digest

that a terrorist who is killing hundreds of people would risk his life to save

a little girl? I lost interest in the movie as soon as the car veers off onto

the pavement and saves the girl.

It seemed like a *ghissi pitti

Bollywood* ending. But then it was slicker than our desi thrillers. So

there!