Vantage Point: Movie review

Vantage Point
Reviewed by Marti
CS Rating: 24 the Movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443274/

I suspect this movie was sold as 24 the movie. 'Jack' from 'Lost' is in there as the man who's job is to save the president. So we have a president in peril, a Jack, terrorists and a complex conspiracy.

All the ingredients for a kick ass film. The movie's trick is to re-run the events of a terrorist attack on a US president, over and over again, from different vantage points.

We have the view of the media (GNN), the secret service agents, the local police, an American tourist, the President himself and finally the terrorist.

The film deserves credit for it's unique approach, it challenges us to solve the puzzle, which is as complex as a spiders web!

Acting from Dennis Quaid, Forest Whitaker and William Hurt is solid and Matthew Fox breaks out from the small screen of Lost, effectively.

I keep coming back to 24, as characters shift sides and by the end of the film, you just don't know who to trust. Perhaps this is overdone to the point you stop caring who's motivated by what.

Without sounding too pretensious, the film in many ways is a tribute to Japanese classic, Rashamon, where different witness to the same story show that the truth gets lost.

The action has that breathless quality of 24 and it never feels over done. One can't help to have that creeping feeling that all too common televised terrorist events have. Manipulation, by the media, by the government is a strong theme in the movie, but Vantage Point doesn't forget to inform that the biggest manipulation is from the terrorist.