VANTAGE POINT

“VANTAGE POINT” (Dennis Quaid, Forest Whitaker, William Hurt & Sigourney Weaver)

Did you ever wish someone would remake ‘Ground Hog’s Day’, but without any humor?
If so, “Vantage Point” is the movie for you! I would describe this film as one with an interesting premise that goes horribly awry.
Although the repetitious showing of the same 15-20 minute period gets monotonous, each ‘replay’ adds another piece to the puzzle so even though you get bored with seeing the clock tick to Noon (letting you know you’re about to live the same 20 minutes over again) you do understand that it is a necessity.
From the onset, I liked ‘Vantage Point’ – Secret Service Agent Tom Barnes (Dennis Quaid)
is back on the job after having taken a bullet for the President(William Hurt) a year earlier. He is part of a crew that is accompanying President Ashton to a ‘peace summit’ taking place in Spain. The ‘twitchy’ Barnes sees a curtain move in a building that should have been evacuated & shortly thereafter the President is shot twice. A man jumps onstage & runs toward the fallen leader, but Barnes tackles him. Turns out the guy was a local policeman hired to protect the mayor, who introduced the President to the crowd gathered in the plaza.
Forest Whitaker plays a tourist who for some reason would rather view the event thru his camcorder rather than with his eyes. He notices the concerned Barnes and turns to see what captured the agent’s attention. From the tourists’ vantage point, there was a man in the room with the flapping curtain, but the rifle that gunned down the Prez was a few floors higher.
The assassination attempt is followed by an explosion in a hotel lobby. In the confusion, Barnes approaches Forest the tourist & asks to see what he filmed. What he sees leads him to run toward the podium at which point a huge explosion goes off killing several people, injuring many more.
With each rewinding of the event we see how each character came into play; the local cop that rushes onto the stage appears to be in love with one of the terrorists, yet it seems as though he’s not aware of this – which leads you to believe he isn’t much of a 'detective'.
There are misleading scenes – on one replay it appears as though the Secret Service guns down the local cop just as he confronts the ‘real’ terrorists. But that’s okay, everything gets resolved in the end.
Barnes rushes to the TV news truck to get a look at what their many cameras shot. (Sigourney Weaver plays the director) At first, we don’t get to see what ‘clues’ the agent in; when we do, it’s one of those moments where you shake your head & wonder - what are the chances of that happening at just the perfect time?
Where this film completely dissolves is in the 2nd half – after ‘Ground Hog’s day’ ceases coming into play. The realization that one of the terrorist’s is actually an innocent victim who murders over a dozen people without believing in ‘the cause’ is more than a little far-fetched.
Then of course, there’s the 20 minute car chase scene at 80 MPH thru the cobblestone streets of a crowded Spanish villa with one close call after another as ‘Uber-Agent’ Barnes not only survives a crash that would have killed a mere mortal, but walks... no, make that runs away from the wreckage without a scratch – no wonder he took a bullet for the President, the man is invincible!
The funniest line ever spoken after an elongated car chase is uttered by Dennis Quaid when he calls for back-up & says he’s seven blocks from the plaza (where the President was shot) A 20 minute chase at top speed & he’s 7 blocks from where he started? This must be one of those ‘special’ cities where they film the TV series ‘24’; where EVERYTHING is within 5 minutes of EVERYWHERE.
I wonder why so many writers start off with great ideas & then seem to ‘give up’ on making a plausible ending. Or is that where the director steps in & says 'we need a 20 minute car chase with multiple high speed crashes’ & things just go down the toilet from there?