Police and other related law enforcement investigators know that few people see things in exactly the same way. Accordingly, when dealing with multiple witnesses to a single incident, they always separate them so that one or more don't taint the rest and their recollection of what occurred. Such separate vantage points are crucial as they may contain bits and pieces that -- when correctly assembled -- can lead to the complete truth, or at least something close enough to that for the authorities to know how to proceed.
Differing views of the same event is an interesting human phenomenon, a point clearly not lost on legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa who used just that in his groundbreaking "Rashomon." The film -- about an 11th century crime recounted by witnesses who progressively add pieces to the puzzle's solution -- was such an outstanding effort that its title became part of the cinematic lexicon used in describing films that subsequently borrowed that multiple viewpoint storytelling device.
While filmmakers haven't gone that often to that well in the following half century and change, pics ranging from the likes of "Courage Under Fire," "Basic" and even the computer-animated kids' flick "Hoodwinked" have attempted to emulate Kurosawa, to varying degrees of success (and failure).
Now one can add the appropriately titled "Vantage Point" to that collection. The tale of an overseas assassination attempt on the President of the United States at an anti-terrorism summit, the film ups the ante in terms of the number of viewpoints. Yet, as penned by Barry Levy, it sticks with the formula of each giving us differing views of what occurred, all while building on the rest to continue divulging important plot info leading up to the conclusion.
Having the same event unfold numerous times would seem to run the risk of getting boring after a while, even when told from different vantage points. Yet Levy and director Pete Travis manage to hold one's interest, and even build upon that with each subsequent telling (all of which possess a sort of cliffhanger mini-conclusion to pique the viewer's curiosity).
That's despite a number of illogical bits, some of which can't be discussed in detail due to the potential of spoiling certain plot points. Others, on the other hand, such as the Secret Service agent character played by Dennis Quaid seemingly channeling the Energizing Bunny as melded with a Timex watch (in that he keeps on going and going after taking a number of lickings), require some suspension of disbelief. And the film perhaps ends up trying too hard to become a complex and heavily plotted offering as ever more characters, schemes and plot points are layered one after another on top of those preceding them.
Despite those issues, however, the cast and crew -- for the most part -- manage to pull it off, delivering a fairly taut and entertaining, if obviously repetitive political thriller. Travis and cinematographer Amir Mokri ably handle the action and chase sequences, while viewers will likely end up rooting for one or more good characters to take care of business regarding the bad ones and their evil intentions.
Although certainly not novel in terms of plot or storytelling structure, and suffering from a few issues that probably could and easily should have been remedied with a few script tweaks, the film moderately succeeds in terms of what it's trying to be and achieve. While audiences may -- appropriately enough -- have different views of the film, "Vantage Point" works well enough to earn a slight recommendation, at least from where I'm standing. The film rates as 5.5 out of 10.
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