Last night some friends and I took opportunity to go to the local theatre and see the film Vantage Point, a film told in five perspectives about the supposed attempted assassination of the President of the United States of America while at a summit in Spain. The film stars Dennis Quaid, Forest Whitaker, Matthew Fox, William Hurt, and Sigourney Weaver.
Quaid plays a Secret Service agent who was previously wounded protecting the President and returns to active duty for the summit. Matthew Fox (the actor who plays Jack on ABC’s hit show LOST) plays one of his team members. Whitaker plays a tourist with a video camera who might have caught something useful on tape. Hurt plays the president (irony noted), and Weaver plays a news team control room operator, directing a news broadcast about the summit.
Overall, the idea for piecing together this film is not entirely original, but at least it’s a nice break from the normal. The action, even in our low-budget theatre, was pretty intensely portrayed. One of the car chase scenes in particular made me cringe. The plot was nice, and the twist wasn’t over-the-top. I still stand by my opinion that they could have used some of that blockbuster action budget and paid the writers for better dialog and not just the unique presentation of the story. Overall, an enjoyable film even with the ridiculous parts.