Vantage Point: A metaphorical camouflage of singular perspectives
(Stills) What would you call another movie that spins around the assassination of the high priest of American Politics, the so-called most powerful man of the world, the President of United States? Simple, Vantage Point! Yet, another thriller with some punch in it! Through out the movie you get the feeling of untangling a bundle of entwined wool or a possible jigsaw puzzle while every piece intrigues you with a possible way out. Even if you get the feeling that it has been inspired from master director Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, a movie that kept the audience far from finding out the truth owing to the conflicting accounts or eye witnesses till the end, Vantage Point does give you something fresh to cud on, without any political, social or even moral sidekicks.
Rating: 3/5
The selling point for Vantage Point is the way the plot has been handled, bringing in a lot of technique and strategy in quite an untamed manner. Should I call it a plot or a compendium of mélange plots? Plots, because the movies talks about a same incident narrated by different witnesses. Truth can and does vary with different perspectives but in this movie truth told by each of the witness holds a clue to the bigger picture. You must decipher the imagery to understand the one string that is singularly running in all accounts. Kudos to Pete Travis for making a movie that denies any sequential or symmetrical pattern for building the crescendo till the climax. You sense that you are in for a thrilling and interesting journey from the initial couple of minutes itself which in itself is the best anchor the film could have used.
Sigourney Weaver in Vantage Point
Set in Salamanca, Spain, the plot movies around the assassination of President Ashton, played by William Hurt, who has arrived to deliver a peace-oriented speech addressing an anti-terror summit attended by representatives from about 150 countries. This event is also widely covered as Media houses outside the conference hall. While this talk on how to combat terrorism goes on, the terror strikes and the president is shot twice as the US secret service agents look on. The mayhem just kicks of as only seconds later a minor blast takes place, soon followed by a major one killing thousands of people gathered for a cause of peace. We have valiant yet stupefied cops trying to figure out what, how and what more. If this isn’t sufficient to bind you to the seat then we have racing cars, speeding bullets and unfolding intrigue to do the trick. The incidence of peace falling prey to terror is being told by different people who witness this incident more than by chance. We have a television crew who want to cover this even with a camera running wild at the incidents capturing certain key elements that have been left aside to aid the investigators and the audience.
The first set of eye witness is the news crew, producer Rex Brooks, played ably by Sigourney Weaver provides her view as she captures the moments from her van. The second angle is given by heroic secret service agent Thomas Barnes, played by Dennis Quaid, and Kent Taylor played by Matthew Fox, with Barnes fairly sure of noticing the shooter. The third point of view is from Enrique, a jilted cop, played by Eduardo Noriegan, who is unhappy of his girlfriend’s two-timing him and is sure that she has something to do with the whole disaster. Tourist Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker) narrates his part of the story as he takes some footage of the event in his camera as a treat for his family back home. The fifth perspective is from President Ashton as he was watching the incidents take place sitting in his luxury hotel suite as a body double took his place at the summit and is later held at gun point and kidnapped. These viewpoints are brewed and laid open with appropriate seasoning and presented to the audience to pick the puzzles and comprehend the elaborate mosaic of planned attacks, ploys and traps.
Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox in Vantage Point
The movie can be called a screenplay writer’s best attempt at interweaving situations for making it more appealing than the best laid directorial stunts. Barry L. Levy deserves all the praise as he leaves no stone unturned to share the same spot as the director for the success of this movie. The experimentation that the duo Pete Travis and Barry L. Levy employed in the plot is a true metaphor, quite a brilliant attempt, of open and close, light and dark, show and hidden and back and forward. Not only these perceptions but we also have well-devised circumstantial coincidences that add the shimmer and keep the mystery gyre on the move.
Dennis Quaid, Forest Whitaker, Matthew Fox in Vantage Point
I would certainly not vouch for any of the actors’ outstanding performances and the climax is a bit clumsy and Travis could have exploited some more of his heroic cops’ abilities. However, the best part is that without trying to enlighten you or even slightly edify you, Pete Travis gives you an easy gimmick; and what more would you wish to get in the two hours that you spend in the theater.
Rating: 3/5
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