LISTINGS |  EDITOR'S PICKS | NEWS | MUSIC | MOVIES | DINING | LIFE | ARTS | REC ROOM | CLASSIFIEDS | VIDEO

Vantage Point

Unintentional laughs
Rating: 1.5 stars
February 20, 2008 1:43:38 PM
Vantage_Point2_inside
VANTAGE POINT: Rashomon it’s not.

For more than half a century, Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon has challenged imitators with its unnerving exploration of the unreliability of the individual point of view. The concept would seem a natural for a film about the war on terror, but director Pete Travis instead turns Vantage Point into a version of Groundhog Day with unintentional laughs. The president (William Hurt) is opening a summit on terror in Spain with a big rally. A Secret Service agent (Dennis Quaid) spots some movement in a window across the square. Bang! The president is down. Or is he? Here the film rewinds and reprises the event from the “vantage point” of another character. Over and over. It might have worked had the POVs not blurred together, with each repetition adding only additional preposterous implausibilities. Vantage Point neither resolves its own mysteries nor says much about the Rashomon effect it’s trying to emulate. 90 minutes | Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Circle/Chestnut Hill + suburbs
COMMENTS

No comments yet. Be the first to start a conversation.

Login to add comments to this article
Email

Password




Register Now  |   Lost password

Best Readers Poll 2008
MOST POPULAR

 VIEWED   EMAILED 

ADVERTISEMENT

BY THIS AUTHOR

MORE REVIEWS
PHOENIX MEDIA GROUP
CLASSIFIEDS







TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
   
Copyright © 2008 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group