Vantage Point
Though he passed away in 1998, for all the movies his classic filmmography have inspired, Japanese master Akira Kurosawa (or his estate now, R.I.P.) should be raking in millions of grosses from hundreds of movies over the years. Although a case can certainly be made for his samurai films, it’s hard to imagine another film of his quite as influential the world over than the film that launched him into the World Cinema spotlight, “Rashomon.” This film told the story of a woman’s rape through the testimonies of four different witnesses, neither of whose stories match up. The events of the trail are remembered by a man in the courtroom, whose perception of the truth is blurred by the inconsistancies. Just off of the top of my head, “Courage Under Fire,” “The Usual Suspects,” “Snake Eyes,” and- in a way- “Memento” are just a few of this classic’s decendents.
This year’s “Vantage Point” is yet another film in the “Rashomon” mode, and certainly one of the more original takes on the formula. The event at the center of the film is an assassination attempt on President Ashton (William Hurt), and subsequent explosion, at a Summit in Spain on the War on Terrorism. But instead of having a single protagonist who interviews key witnesses, “Vantage Point” (which borrows its’ editing and cinematography style from the “Bourne” movies, sometimes to good effect- like in the action scenes- sometimes not so much- like everything else) shows us the point of views of 6-8 different characters, including the President himself. So we get to see things from the perspective of a news broadcast producer on location (Sigourney Weaver); a bystander on vacation (Forrest Whitaker, reliably terrific); a member of the security detail for the city’s mayor; two Secret Service agents (Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox); and members of the terrorist squad looking to pull off the attempt. Each time, we rewind what we’ve seen before, and start again at 12pm Spain time, each time from a different point of view.
Compelling story, but the execution left a little bit to be desired. Though superbly edited by action master Stuart Baird (“Superman: The Movie,” “Lethal Weapon”), who keeps the film racing (sometimes at too fevered a pitch), the structure of always going back in time for the different points of view wears thin after about the fourth or fifth time, though the actors- capable of developing their characters with simple glances and short scenes- keep you intrigued. They keep your interest going forward even when the filmmakers, looking for yet another clever method of storytelling, keep going back to the same event, adding another piece of the puzzle even when they remove the story’s overall momentum. It’s not a terrible tradeoff, but it leaves you shaking your head, wondering how you might have done things differently.
