Vantage Point misses target

Nestled in my seat at the movie theater, I checked my cell phone to see what time it was. The previews started to roll, another Ironman preview. Please, show me something new, Hollywood. Finally, a preview for the FOX TV show 24 played on the screen. I thought to myself Kiefer Sutherland sure does look a lot like Dennis Quaid. That’s when I realized as much as I wanted this to be preview, it was actually Dennis Quaid and not Kiefer Sutherland. Sadly, this was no preview, it was the movie Vantage Point.

As disappointing as this realization was, I swallowed my pride and by accident, my gum. I watched what I thought would be an action packed conspiracy filled thriller.

The film is about a summit in Spain where the U.S. president is shot and a bomb kills many bystanders. The film presents this event and the subsequent chase for the assassinators in eight different points of view. The most important point of view is Thomas Barnes’, played by Dennis Quaid. Barnes is a secret service agent, who previously took a bullet for the president. Barnes is the most intriguing character because of his psychological trauma after being shot. The plot focuses around a sniper and two bombers that the secret service must apprehend, all the while looking after the president.

Vantage Point seems like an attractive fresh idea for a film, which will tease the audience and force the audience to try to piece together the facts and formulate a conclusion. The film did tease the audience, but the audience literally groaned every time the clock switched back to 12 and a new view point started. The audience should have known that was going to happen, it is called Vantage Point. But this is not where I have my problems with the film. What the film failed to do was let the audience try to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

The whole attractiveness and purpose of a film edited in this multiple point of view style is for the viewer to have to fit each point of view together, and solve the mystery of the plot and therefore the film. Vantage Point was using this idea until the subplot about Thomas Barnes takes over. Most importantly, the film at the end abandons its point of view style and just presents an ending that is based purely on coincidence, instead of detective work and cleverness.

Aside from the inability to fully realize the potential of the eight view points, the action scenes in the film and the acting were superior. The car chases in the film were intense to say the least, almost so that they became very unrealistic. If I could drive my car like Dennis Quaid did in the film and survive, then I would never be late to school. Also noteworthy, the film began with a couple of unique and unexpected plot twists, which in the end made the unfeasible and lackluster ending even more disappointing.

Although Quaid had the most involved character, Forest Whitaker’s portrayal of Howard Lewis, an American tourist, shines as the best performance in the film. Whitaker’s ability to maintain and express the same character, while in polar situations during the film is a true highlight of the film. The transformation from his Oscar winning performance a year ago as a tyrannical king to an American tourist was seamless and astounding.

This film deserves a B because despite failing to reach its potential, the superb action and the solid storyline combined together to make an entertaining film.

Vantage Point is 90 minutes long and rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, some disturbing images and brief strong language.