President Ashton (William Hurt) has come to Spain to deliver a speech on terrorism which could very well define his administration’s place in history. He is protected by a pair of Secret Service agents, Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox), the first of which took a bullet in the chest for him less than a year ago. 

Forest Whitaker, Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox in Sony Pictures' Vantage Point

Unfortunately this time the marksman does not miss, the President hit twice just as he is making his way to the podium to deliver his address. Moments after he’s rushed away in a speeding ambulance to get treatment, a bomb explodes destroying everything around it and taking countless lives in the process. But all of this masks a far greater conspiracy, and before the next hour is up Agent Barnes will once again have to prove his metal under fire or the man he’s sworn to protect will fall into hands too awful to comprehend.

Vantage Point is a cute 30-minute B-movie idea stretched out to a full hour and a half. Played straight, I probably could have gone with all of the illogical twists and turns and forgiven much of the idiocy going on we’re supposed to just take for granted. Heck, I do it when watching each season of “24,” I should be at least moderately open to being able to do the same with this.

Problem is, Barry Levy’s screenplay thinks it is far cuter and more intelligent than it really is, and its device of rewinding the action six different times so we can look at the attempted assassination from a new perspective quickly grows tiresome. First we get the news people led by a cantankerous bitch in high heels (Sigourney Weaver) who likes to bark. Then comes the Secret Service. Next there’s the frumpy American tourist (Forest Whitaker) trying to get over his failing marriage. Can’t forget about the poor Spanish policeman (Eduardo Noriega) bewitched by a sinister temptress (Ayelet Zurer), which means you also have to have the point-of-view of the sexy Special Forces agent (Edgar Ramirez) trying to protect his brother.

And so on and so forth. Just when you think the filmmakers can’t show you another angle, click, stop, rewind, you’re right back at at the start. At a certain point you almost can’t help but laugh (something the preview audience I was with started doing en masse about the fourth backtrack), the device becoming increasingly ludicrous and illogical the more it takes place.

Don’t get me wrong. Had Levy and director Pete Travis spent more time focusing on characters and atmosphere (a la Sidney Lumet’s Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead) and less on their own imaginative trickery , I might have been more willing to give Vantage Point a pass. But they don’t, not once and not ever, the only thing on their minds being how loud they can make the gunfire, how screechy they can screech the tires and what decibel level they can turn Atli Örvarsson’s faux Bourne Ultimatum score up to.

Even when they have the chance to redeem themselves when the climactic plot dynamics finally click in the duo still blow it with one of the most ludicrously asinine finales I’ve had the displeasure to see in ages. Without giving anything away, let’s just say the coincidences going on are beyond extraordinary, and the choices the terrorists make leading to their downfall aren’t just implausible, they’re borderline inexcusable.

Pity, because Quaid can do this sort of stuff in his sleep, while both Noriega and Ramirez are quite good at fleshing out thinly sketched characters. I also quite liked Hurt here, and while his President doesn’t really get to do all that much the quiet unaffected dignity he brings to the role is, and I sincerely mean this, really quite special. 

Be all that as it may, I wouldn’t recommend anyone watch this. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not horrific, it’s just pointless, and no matter which angle you choose to watch it from the only thing you get while viewing Vantage Point is the unceasing desire to turn your eyes someplace else. 

Film Rating: êê (out of 4)

Additional Links:

-  Vantage Point Theatrical Trailer