Vantage Point

Director Pete Travis was working behind the camera solely in television before he shot the Paul Greengrass script that became Omagh about the IRA bombing that killed 28 people in Northern Ireland in 1998. The film won many awards and trajected Travis straight to the big time with his next film being Vantage Point.

The film is shot in continual retelling through the perspectives of different players and witnesses involved in the attempted assassination of the US president who is giving a public speech at a summit in Spain. The effect is akin to watching a jigsaw being put together by different people who have their own unique piece and of whom none are aware of what the complete process will reveal.

Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox play the role of bodyguards to the President very effectively and prove their worth in an action role. Forest Whitaker is a tourist who captures the events on his hand-held camera and is drawn into the drama which unfolds around him. Other notable roles are William Hurt as the president and Sigourney Weaver who plays a relatively minor role as a TV producer.

Travis rides a fine line between repetitiveness and anticipation as each new sequence based on the main characters reveals more of the plot and storyline of the said characters with the end section of the movie blending together to a frenetic finale.

Despite the setup and structure being handled well and taking a unique version on what is essentially a whodunnit thriller for the most part, I wasn't enamoured with the overall message and ending of the film.

Nevertheless, as an action-thriller it is certainly worth checking out and I look forward to Travis' next project to see what he does next.

I would give Vantage Point 6.9 eye witnesses out of 10