Vantage Point
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, some disturbing images and brief strong language.
reviewed by Christopher Lyon
Here's the pitch: View the same highly-charged assassination attempt from eight different points of view to piece together what's really going on, who is behind the plot, and how the good guys can save what's left of the day. Great concept, but how's the execution?
The Story
Thomas Barnes and his partner (Dennis Quaid ad Matthew Fox) are nervous secret service agents guarding the U.S. President (William Hurt) at an anti-terrorism summit speech in a crowded Spanish town square. But we get our first of multiple perspectives from the news producer (Sigourney Weaver) covering the event from inside a news truck. Through her cameras, we see the crowd of protesters, we see the president enter the plaza, we see him take to the stage, we see him shot, followed by an explosion several blocks away, followed by another, larger explosion nearby. Bodies fly and lie crumpled all around.
Then the screen freezes and does this kind of rewind thing until we reset the action from Barnes's perspective. We watch as he notices a moving curtain in a high window, recovers from shock following the violence, then takes off in search of the bad guys. His "vantage point" is followed in another represented by that of an American tourist with a video camera (Forest Whitaker), then a Spanish cop who may or may not be involved in the assassination, and eventually the mastermind behind the plot.
Gradually, we discover all of the available intel until the film abandons the device and winds up as a more traditional car-chase-and-gunplay thriller, moving most of the available (still breathing) characters toward an inevitable, explosive climax.
The Verdict
With it's big stars and high concept, "Vantage Point" won its opening weekend at the box office while disappointing most critics. The approach (borrowed from the famous 1950 film "Roshomon" and all its imitators) is an undeniably cool idea. From the previews and ads, I imagined we'd get enough new information with each new perspective to slowly and cleverly fit together all the pieces in a kind of action puzzle movie.
The filmmakers never quite pull that off, choosing instead to just show the action over and over without ever letting us figure anything out on our own. Instead, director Pete Travis and team just kind of walk us through the action and point out exactly what's going on in each new twist and turn. I ended up thinking it might have been a better film if they'd just told the story straight out.
Some of the action works well. What's "really going on" between the terrorists and the feds is often surprising. In a way, it all reminded me (for better and worse) of half a season of "24" crammed into 90 minutes. The difference is that with a TV series you get a chance to get to know who the characters are, why they're doing what they're doing, and why you should care. Here, terrorists, good guys, and double crossers all just do what they do -- no humanity explored. The one exception is the exceptional Forest Witaker as the camera-wielding American tourist. That guy could make you care about the phone book.
The film lands its PG-13 with a big, loud, usually bloody body count of innocent bystanders and combatants shot, stabbed, blown-up, and crunched (and quite a bit of harsh language).
Worldview
If "Vantage Point" packs a worldview beyond terrorists = bad, saving the president = good, it might be that our understanding of truth is limited by the fact that we only ever see life from one perspective. Even by the time the credits roll, many of the characters still don't know everything that happened. Each is limited to what he or she learns from others about what happened where they weren't looking.
That big idea -- that you need to understand life from other points of view to really get what's going on -- is at the heart of what it means to be wise. Why does Solomon write that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10)? Because God is the one who created and designed life and understands it from every angle. Without knowing His perspective, we've got zero chance of figuring out what's "really going on."
Beyond that, Proverbs urges us to get out there and gather the vantage points of wise men and women who have seen things we have not -- especially if we're making big plans: "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed." (Proverbs 15:22) We need other takes on life if we ever hope to succeed at anything worth doing.
Questions:
• How many unique vantage points did you count in the film? Which was the most helpful? Why?
• Did the movie work for you? How could it have been improved?
• Did you spot any of the twists and turns before they were revealed?
• When you're trying to figure something out in your life -- or you're making plans for the future -- do you go looking for wisdom from people with other points of view? Why or or why not?
• Are you convinced that God's perspective is the one that matters most? What do you do when His description of truth (revealed in the Bible) conflicts with another seemingly wise person's perspective on life?