The plot of a film decides the audience capture. The word of mouth after the first screening rings in the BO with fortunes!
A film will always have a basic plot and then a story to flesh out the characters and then situations that take you through the tell tale and a conclusion that would be either a message, pure thrill, bad beats good silly and then good beats bad silly, lost siblings kill villain and unite…
Very few films start with an agenda that delivers a modicum which, even if superficial delivers a STRONG MESSAGE! Then there are ways to showcase a script. Thrillers have a lot of close camera work, stead cam work or even car rig cam set up to give you the rush, hush and the thrill of pace! Vantage Point is vintage only in its Camera work, Cast and locations. Beyond that the film doesn’t work at all.
The script is stale: An attack to kill the President of USA! That has been tried and presented so many times!
*SPOILER ALERT: The good guys foil the attempt and get the dogs to justice!
Okay now for the real reason for writing a review on this film. Dennis Quaid is an accomplished actor. He is versatile to have played a comic President in American Dreams, as Jack Hall the scientist in The Day After Tomorrow, as Frank Sullivan a police detective in Frequency or even as Arnie Metzger in Traffic a film dealing on drugs. In fact Dennis was the reason for the DVD to land up on my player! Supported by William Hurt as The President, Forest Whitaker as a tourist and Sigourney Weaver **as the restless slave driver on a TV News Channel I just couldn’t resist it!
The Plot:
The assassination of the Prez whiles his speech ceremony on the gala opening of the Anti Terrorism summit in Spain. This is the cliché.
Now, Peter Travis the Director, his first venture, tries to give us a kaleidoscope of the single event and thus succeeds in introducing the thrill of a who-dun-it and at the same time a racy picture of the actual goings on which keeps you rooted to the screen. The entire drama being created and its on screen depiction go to the cinematographer Amir Mokri and the editor duo of Stuart Baird and Sigvaldi Karason. Amir Mokri has to his credit National Treasure – 2 and more popular Coyote Ugly. The editors Stuart have Casino Royale, Superman 2, Maverick and Lethal Weapon 2 amongst others. Sigvaldi has Love Is In the Air, A Little Trip To Heaven and a lot of French films to his credit. Impressive isn’t it?
*Why I wonder then that this magic did not work at the Box Office?
*The reason is the age old cliché of the fascination of Producers and Directors to assassinate the Prez of USA! It just doesn’t seem to vanish. Then the only seemingly classy thing that Peter had going for him is the ace camera man Mokri with his more than amazing Editing team.
Peter presents the happenings of this event from four different views; One the Prez(William Hurt) angle, Thomas Barnes(Dennis) as the Prez protect detail once removed, Enrique(Noriega) as the police officer who detects a movement in the adjacent building and Rex Brooks(Sigourney) the News Channel boss. The film opens very normally and Rex is shouting her directions to the camera crew for maximum coverage of the event. The entire atmosphere is electric, surreal and festive too. There is chaos as people throng the venue and the police have a hard time controlling the crowd. The atmosphere is building up for the moment of truth, two actually; The Prez of USA and His assassination! Suddenly pandemonium breaks loose as we hear explosions and shots ringing and creating panic and havoc at the scene. The Prez has fallen, Barnes is running at full speed to check on the fallen party and his associate shouting on the walkie to seal the area and stop the escape of the perpetrator/s…. These 10 minutes of the film are golden.
Then the kaleidoscope begins from the angles of the Police officer, The Tourist and then Barnes… We are treated to a brilliant screen play edited beautifully to sequence the event from each of these angles. The edit makes the film more than brilliant and the camera work, I am sure the entire coverage was done with at least 6 cameras on ground, two in air on choppers and one on a jib. That’s why the views and the angles from which the perspective of each of these partaking victims is shown give you a new clue to look at….
This type of presentation was also done in a film titled Rashomon.
The whole point being driven here is the x, y and z axis views collated and edited together to complete the picture and give it an end! The end is not much to speak of as you must have realized what it could be! That’s exactly what I mean by clichéd…
Where the plot gives away the conclusion, what remains is only the making to awe you. Peter has the best technicians to do it for him. You are just stumped by the pace, the raciness and the super collating that these guys have done to bring it to the lethal end! This is not a political thriller; this is not a plot that has a definite meaning to end the Prez life and neither is it a drama of a stand off check mate situation. It’s just the event and its unfolding shown in a very brilliant, fast and snazzy kaleidoscopic way!
It has certain ingredients of thrill when Fox One changes the decision of his movement without telling his detail and averts disaster en route! Beyond that the thrill doesn’t exist. It’s a wasted effort in terms of the story. There has to be an element of mystery in a script or a hidden agenda which is much bigger when it really happens on screen. This phenomenon when shown in this sort of pacy way grows in stature and the word of mouth increases by leaps and bounds.
For a film to run successfully the first audience has to be sufficiently impressed with the films story, cast and its presentation. When the story fails little else can save the film. Case in point, Quantum of Solace. If there was a book written by the author and then the picturisation of the film, maybe it would have been a huge hit. It is been dubbed as a mediocre hit and of course Daniel Craig has risen the popularity charts.
*I was impressed with the technicians work but not the script. I would recommend it for one watch for the tech buffs and for the thrill seekers but for real cinema goers who look at entertainment this is a definite no no!
*p.s. The word editor failed me. Sorry for the single paragraph being presented for your reading. This might be a flop review… LOL! FINALLY. Eureka eureka! I did it. Now people please read this review in STYLE! This is in line with my thoughts of the film.