Seeing is believing

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), August 1, 2008

VANTAGE POINT

Cert 12, 86 mins, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Action/Thriller, also available to buy DVD pounds 19.99/Blu-ray pounds 24.99

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana, Eduardo Noriego, Edgar Ramirez, Ayelete Zurer, Bruce McGill.

*****

PRESIDENT Ashton (Hurt) travels to Spain to make a keynote address on the global threat of terrorism.

As he approaches the lectern, two shots ring out and Secret Service agents Thomas Barnes (Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Fox) rush to the President's aid.

In the ensuing pandemonium, Thomas notices American tourist Howard Lewis (Whitaker) digitally recording the incident. They hastily review the footage, discovering too late that the shooter has left another surprise for the Secret Service.

Meanwhile, veteran television news producer Rex Brooks (Weaver) watches in horror as her reporter Angie Jones (Saldana) is caught up in the chaos.

Vantage Point is an intricate actionthriller, which replays a devastating terrorist attack from eight perspectives to reveal the truth, one fragment at a time. Screenwriter Barry L Levy doesn't play fair: coincidence and chance nudge the film increasingly towards implausibility, like Howard shadowing a police chase with his camera in order to feed us a red herring.

There's little chance of figuring out the whole truth behind the subterfuge because key evidence is withheld until the final iteration, when the terrorist outrage unfolds from multiple perspectives, including through the eyes of the president himself.

Manchester-born director Pete Travis fills the screen with enough pyrotechnics and noise to keep our eyes and ears engaged, even if our brains are not, including a wellorchestrated car chase that sees one character follow Jason Bourne's example and emerge from twisted metal and shattered glass almost unscathed. However, Travis is far less successful with the quieter, emotional moments - what few there are - hamstrung by a noticeable lack of depth to the characters as they fight for survival.

DVD Extras: Director commentary, surveillance tapes deleted scenes, Plotting An Assassination featurette, Vantage Point: An Inside Perspective featurette; Blu-ray: Director commentary, Surveillance Tapes deleted scenes, Plotting An Assassination featurette, Vantage Point: An Inside Perspective featurette, Vantage Viewer: GPS Tracker PiP video.

CAPTION(S):

POINTS OF VIEW - Forest Whitaker witnesses the shots in Vantage Point