"Vantage Point" Offers No New Perspective

Starring Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, and Forest Whitaker, "Vantage Point" falls a bit short of my expectations for this action drama, which initially seemed to present a creative concept. Instead, it makes me feel a little less confidant in the Secret Service men of our nation.


Quaid and Fox are two Secret Service agents assigned to protect the U.S. president (William Hurt) in Spain at an important international summit focused on the war on terror. Ironically, the president is shot, and the plot unfolds the different perspectives of both those involved, and simple bystanders, to weave a story that has the audience guessing how everything is connected.


It is a bit reminiscent of "Groundhog's Day" or "Memento" in that it relies on a series of flashbacks once the primary scene is established at the beginning. The audience connects with Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid), as he tries to identify the shooter.

Some character interactions seem a bit far-fetched and odd when you first see it, but eventually things tie back in together. Later, they seem a dead giveaway to the film's predictability. Although there is clearly a good vs. evil force at work here, some cases of outlandish public violence by the Secret Service (i.e. shooting at an escapee while in a crowded marketplace) make you question if this is really how such operations go down. In many instances, the Secret Service are inept at the very thing they are supposedly trained to do: guard and protect.


The car chase scenes, coupled with the explosions and gunfire (which is repeated over and over every 20 minutes or so when it switches to a different 'vantage point'), make this an exciting -- albeit somewhat exhausting -- film to watch. I would recommend renting this if you feel like watching an action movie with a bit of suspense. It's far from groundbreaking, but is decent if you're looking for a fairly short film that doesn't involve too much thinking.