Cinema Update
Review of Vantage
Point
By Raymond Valinoti, Jr.
For unknown reasons, Vantage Point’s intended release was
delayed for several months. Regrettably,
this would-be political thriller wasn’t worth the wait for me. Here, someone
tries to assassinate a fictional U.S. President (William Hurt) at an
international summit on terrorism in
Unlike
Akira Kurosawa’s acclaimed Japanese film Rashomon, which explored various
perspectives of an incident in order to examine people’s subjective
interpretation of reality, this film employs different
views in order to piece together the whys and hows of a global terrorist plot.
Director Pete Travis introduces us to a different viewpoint by rewinding the
sequences like a video player. This contrivance only calls attention to itself
and quickly becomes tiresome. Couldn’t he use a simpler method, like a
dissolve?
Still,
I wouldn’t have found Vantage Point so
dismaying if the video rewind technique was the film’s only liability. Barry L.
Levy’s scenario is punctured by numerous plot holes. For instance, why would an
international anti-terrorism conference be held outdoors in a public square
with various heads of state sitting unguarded on a podium? And why would the
mastermind of the conspiracy (Said Taghmaoui) unflinchingly kill thousands of innocents
but insist on sparing a little girl? Further crippling the film is the
depressingly uninspired dialogue. Here’s one such example: "This never
should've happened." "Except that it did, and it was on our
watch." Did Levy write this script in his sleep?
Vantage
Point has a talented cast, including Quaid, Whitaker and Weaver but they
are trapped in paper-thin characterizations and are overwhelmed by the film’s
relentless inanity. Director Travis’s direction is efficient but mechanical, as
generic as the dialogue. The same explosions and car chases have occurred in so
many previous action films and are instantly forgettable- even the bombing of
the summit that is repeatedly shown at the end of each p.o.v. sequence.
What makes Vantage Point morally repugnant is that it trivializes the crucial
issue of international terrorism. Sociological theories on why people become
terrorists and ethical controversies on how to deal with this threat are tossed
aside, reducing the issue to a simplistic good vs.evil battle like those in
matinee serials of yore. Maybe Sony, the studio responsible for the movie,
wanted to uplift troubled Americans. But we’re all too aware from observing the
news on television and on the Internet that the war on Terror is too
complicated to be easily resolved. Ultimately, Vantage Point is a big lie. And an unconvincing one.
Raymond Valinoti, Jr. is a resident of Berkeley Heights, NJ. He has a Master’s in Library Science from Rutgers University and is a freelance researcher. His articles on film have been published in the magazines Midnight Marquee and Films of the Golden Age. He can be reached at rvalinoti@thealternativepress.com