Vantage Point: The Big Movie that Says Very Little.

READ: Spoilers abound.
Simply put, not even Matthew Fox could redeem this one for me. The movie attempts to address what are generally seen as "big issues," such as international terrorism and the consequences America has received in leading the fight against it, double agents, the media's control over American worldviews, the government's knee-jerk reaction to bomb even friendly nations without even 5 minutes of debate, suicide bombing, etc. But that's all it was--an attempt and a hinting at the issues, but never a getting around to facing them head-on. One of the most unsatisfying aspects of the movie is one of the main plot points, which is Matthew Fox's character. I think I could even go so far as to say that his character, who crosses the red line and becomes the enemy, is the whole reason we are sitting in that darkened auditorium in the first place. His decision to help the terrorist group is never answered. He dies and mumbles something to his ex-partner before we ever fully learn his motives for being an agent to so much chaos and destruction. The movie is called Vantage Point, and yet we never get to see the one person's point of view that matters most to the movie. To me this represents a serious hole in plot structure and overall vision.

Beyond that, the sentimentality was enough to make me and the person sitting next to me to laugh out loud and say, "Did that seriously just happen?" In one instance, the little girl, Ana, just happens to end up ten feet from the final scene of action and is the cause of a very contrived car crash involving the very ambulance driven by two terrorists who have the kidnapped President stowed in the back. (Never fear. The ambulance flips and slides to a comic stop just feet from where the beleagered little girl was standing, who meanwhile has found safety in the arms of an American family man looking for a way to solve his own marital troubles back in the States.) Nothing is too implausible for this overblown movie. Dennis Quaid's coming-to-the-rescue, I'm-a-redeemed-man-by-show's-end bit is somewhat awkward also, because, once again, his situation is only hinted at and never fully explained.

What it comes down to is an epic case of "I'm the director/screen-writer/producer, now read my mind while I show you glimpses of what I mean to say but don't have the chutzpa to come out and say it," -itis.