Vantage Point (2008) (nat)

I'm convinced that this movie was slated to come out much earlier than it did, was pulled back because it had bad early reviews, and has been sent back out now in Oscar dump season. Joel thinks I'm wrong and that the whole thing was it's original marketing campaign. Anyway, we saw this one last night--chosen out of a slim line-up (this, Boleyn Girl, and Semi-Pro--oh the choices . . . we went with the only one playing late enough to accommodate dinner).

I don't advise seeing it.

First, it's very poorly acted. All (and I do mean ALL) of the actors either overacted (I'm looking at you Dennis Quaid and Forest Whitaker) or didn't bother at all (hello, Sigourney Weaver).

Second, the imposed narrative structure is trite, useless, and annoying. We get the beginning of the story from an omniscient view, then we get 3 p.o.v.'s, and then we go back to the omniscient (sort-of). So, I'm just going to go ahead and give away whatever I want because, really, don't see this.

The frame info is that the world leaders have gathered in Spain for an anti-terrorism summit. I think some sort of treaty is to be signed.

The first p.o.v. is Dennis Quaid's--the just back on the job after having saved the President from being shot 6 months ago Secret Service agent. He's jittery and has only gotten the job because Matthew Fox put in a good word. So we go through his story (oh my god! he saw something on the news footage but we're not told what! suspense. except not so much) and all of the excitement with two shots hitting the body double president, a bomb going off at a hotel and the podium blowing up and then the film shows the whole thing rewinding and we get a clock. Trite.

Then we get a Spanish police officer's p.o.v.--which involves interaction with potential bad guys and a chase scene--oh boy! Then it rewinds again. Hello clock--as if the rewinding didn't tell us we were going back in time. The narrative certainly isn't precise enough to warrant telling us what time it is.

Then we get Forest Whitaker's lost American on the verge of divorce (maybe, maybe already divorced, who knows) whose ooooh and aaaaahing at the architecture with his camera proves helpful to Quaid but we're not told how! Suspense. Except again, not at all. Then it rewinds. Clock.

Then we get the President's version which strangely portrays him as a helpless child being pushed around. Then it rewinds. Clock.

We've now seen the podium blow up 10 times. TEN TIMES!

Then they show the "terrorists" p.o.v.--yep, all 4 or so of them get the same narrative that then diffuses into the omnipresent version again. (Can we say condescending and patronizing?) In this last version, we get that the two in-charge terrorists have one guy's brother held hostage (we don't know who he is or how they got him) so that the guy will help kidnap the President. We also find out that Matthew Fox has gone all rogue Secret Service agent on us--we don't know why--we get the stupidly delivered, even more stupidly written lines: "Thank God this double life is almost over!" and "You can't stop them. No one can stop it. No one can stop this war." And then he dies. The who, what, and which war are not given.

Meanwhile, the Spanish cop has been shot by the guy looking for his hostage brother who has already been killed (we don't know why the guy thinks the Spanish cop was involved or why the Spanish cop was going to the same place as the guy), the two (supposed) terrorists have succeeded in getting the President (but we don't know why or what they plan to do with him) but have now crashed the ambulance they were driving in order to avoid hitting a child who is in the middle of the road yelling for her mother while both Dennis Quaid and Forest Whitaker rush toward her to save her--even terrorists who have kidnapped the President swerve to avoid children (maybe this one should be dedicated to the children, our future, the only real anti-terrorist weapon we have). One terrorist is dead, the child is reunited with her mother thanks to Forest who then talks on the phone to his own son. Dennis finds the President and kills the second terrorist, and they fly off in Air Force One.

The people involved also can't count. We're supposed to get 8 p.o.v.'s. We really only get 3: Dennis Quaid's, the Spanish cop, and Forest Whitaker. The beginning is omni, the 4 terrorists are all slumped in together with bits that are omni so that just has to count as omni or bad p.o.v. shifting.

If that sounds exciting, it's not. The movie was only 90 minutes long and spent at least half of that time showing us things we already knew and yet failed to tell us:
1. Who the terrorists are.
2. If they are even terrorists.
3. Who the terrorists work for.
4. What the larger goal of the terrorists is. (what are they going to do with the US President).
5. Why Matthew Fox has signed on with the terrorists.
6. Why the President is such a lame duck to his handlers.
7. Why the handler (I don't know who he really is) wants the President to blow up Morocco without any real provocation.
8. Whether the handler has ulterior motives (his facial expressions would indicate such but maybe it's just overacting).
9. Whether the terrorists have connections to Morocco.
10. Any sort of point, really.

Really. Don't see it. Go see a good movie again if you just have to go to the theater.