Film Review: Vantage Point

by Philip Key, Liverpool Daily Post

Vantage Point (Cert 12A, 90 mins)
Stars Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, William Hurt, Forrest Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver and Said Taghaoui
Directed by Pete Travis

FRANCIS DURBRIDGE, the creator of Paul Temple and Britain’s greatest exponent of the cliffhanger serial on radio and TV, once described his working method as: “Nobody is who they seem, everyone is lying.”

It is a point to bear in mind while watching this edge-of-your-seat cliffhanger.

On the face of it, the film’s technique seems unlikely to lend itself to the cliffhanger concept.

This is more in the realms of Groundhog Day as the same scenario is regularly reeled back to be examined from someone else’s viewpoint.

The US President (William Hurt) is in Spain for a meeting of world leaders on terrorism.

At a gathering in a public square, the president is shot and an explosion follows. It is an event we watch over and over again.

At first, we see it through the eyes of the television cameras and television director Sigourney Weaver directing the coverage with a battery of screens in a mobile TV unit.

Next up is nervous security man Thomas Burns (Dennis Quaid), back on duty after being injured in a previous assassination attempt and his colleague Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox).

There is American tourist Howard (Forest Whitaker) filming events on his camcorder and a Spanish undercover policeman (Eduardo Noreiga) keeping an eye both on events and his girlfriend. And so on.

But with each viewpoint we get a little more information and each sequence ends with some sort of unexpected event, be it an explosion or someone reviewing a film sequence and gasping “Oh my God!” without explanation.

Eventually, the flashbacks end and the story itself – with all the additional information on board – takes off as the terrorists continue the day’s campaign and Quaid tries to track them down.

There are plenty more twists left in Barry Levy’s economic but ever changing plotline and the 90 minutes’ running time just flies by.

There is also a terrific car chase through the busy streets of the Spanish city and any film with a car chase is all right by me.

It is a film that probably only works on one viewing and it would be remiss of me to give away any of the plot secrets.

But it is high energy stuff and British TV director Pete Travis (Omagh, Henry VIII) keeps the pace frantic.

Despite the political terrorist content, this is in no way a political film.

No real explanation is given for the terrorists’ action and all the characters are two-dimensional and straight out of the stereotype bag.

The star names get little more to do than look anxious, apart from Quaid, who also gets to do a lot of running around.

But that is not the point of a film which sets out to offer high tension excitement and delivers it in spades.

Performances are adequate, rather than thrilling, but do their job of providing the puppets which the script throws around with gay abandon.

Of course, if you spot the twists, the film will be a waste of time but I must admit they caught me continually off guard.

The location filming is excellent and provides its own sense of menace and unreality.

The car chase – a lengthy one involving a small saloon, a police car and an ambulance – has its share of clichés (the car racing along a pavement scattering al fresco diners) but is photographed to provide sheer excitement including many shots from the driver’s point of view. It’s not one of the classic chases, but up there among the best.

There is a satisfactory conclusion with most of the loose ends tied up, rather like the end of an Agatha Christie plot.

American film critics dismissed Vantage Point as a mere gimmick.

Personally, I thought the gimmick worked beautifully and for anyone who likes cliffhangers like 24, it is sheer delight.

philkey@dailypost.co.uk