Told in Rashomon style, Vantage Point examines the assassination of the President of the United States from several different accounts (even POTUS himself). The film cumulates in a thrilling chase sequence, but the way in which they tell the tale tends to annoy rather than excite.
The President of the United States aka POTUS (William Hurt) is giving a speech at an anti-terrorism summit in Salamanca, Spain when he is shot down. The event is then replayed from the perspective of several different characters - all with different insights to the attack.
First we get to see is television producer Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver) who is in Spain directing the coverage of the event by her network. She spots secret service Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) in the company that is protecting the president.
Agent Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox) is also in the service detail and is taking up for the possibly shell-shocked Barnes. Barnes took a bullet for the president in a previous assassination attempt and Brooks is surprised that he’s been returned to service so swiftly.
American tourist Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker) is also in the crowd observing the president’s speech and wandering around with his video camera. Enrique (Eduardo Noriega) is tackled by Barnes after rushing the stage after the assassination, but it turns out that he’s an undercover Spanish police officer. However, Barnes thinks that he is more involved than he lets on.
Film buffs will remember Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon in which a murder is told from various viewpoints and everyone has something different to say (even the murdered). It did make me laugh when the production company was called “Original Film” which made me think that they’d be “homaging” other “original” films.
Director Pete Travis chose a similar plotline to make his big studio debut film and added a technical component that the tale of medieval Japan lacked. In some ways that helped the film and in others it hurt it.
Let’s start with the hurt.
After each person’s bit of the story we’re subjected to a “rewind” where we see snips of the story that we’ve just watched backwards. I found this superfluous and perhaps just there to pad the film’s running time - as it might’ve dropped around ten to fifteen minutes if jettisoned.
Some of the characters (such as Forest Whitaker’s tourist) also seem to interact in a forced manner as if they were only there to serve the story functions of the screenwriter (deus ex machina).
The ending where it all comes together reminded me of Signs as all of the events seemed preordained by some higher power and we’re just watching them fall into place. I don’t think that the director was saying that, but it sure reminded me of Signs (and a lesser extent the whole butterfly junk from I Am Legend).
Some of the characters are given little to work with and seem to disappear as we move onto other’s stories. Sigourney Weaver just didn’t seem in it for too long (hence her “and” on the cover) and almost felt like a cameo. The performances were quite good though so I have no complaints there.
Dennis Quaid was very good as the secret service agent who may or may not be ready to start protecting POTUS again. I almost wish that it would’ve only followed his character around, but that would’ve ruined the gimmick of the film.
There are some surprises towards the end, and a suspenseful car chase, but don’t expect it to join Kurosawa’s film on the classic shelf. That being said it is an entertaining ride, even if some of my vantage point was blocked by my complaints.
Vantage Point is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.40:1). Special features include a commentary from director Pete Travis. The 26-minute “An Inside Perspective” is a making of featurette with interviews with the cast and crew. The 16-minute “Plotting an Assassination” goes into detail as to how that particular scene was staged.
The 7-minute, standard definition “Coordinating Chaos” is about the stunt work. The 42-second, standard definition “Surveillance Tapes” is an amusing little bit about a character cut from the film for his terrible performance and he looks suspiciously like the director.
The Blu-ray also features a “Vantage Viewer” that shows you what the other characters are doing during each section of the film. Now it only shows you who it wants to show you, as I was unable to select another character to see what they were up to. It also overtakes the audio of the main feature with the other character’s scenes, so save this one till after you’ve watched the movie.
Even so it felt somewhat repetitive since you’ll see the same scenes if you watch the movie through. The disc also has a BD Live function that I was unable to get to work. My PS3 was connected to my wireless network so I assume that this feature wasn’t ready at press time.
From my vantage point [insert rimshot here], Vantage Point did have some entertainment value. However, I thought that some of that entertainment was overshadowed by the gimmick of the showing the film from different perspectives (as well as feeling repetitive in some character’s stories). I did like the action finale and the assassination plot.
Vantage Point [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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