Movie Review : Man On A Ledge
Friday, February 03, 2012 2:59:09 PM (IST)
|
Anaam, Bollywood Trade Editorial
It is a well-crafted crime thriller that follows all established norms of the genre and succeeds in engaging your attention. The interesting news is that the great divide between Hollywood and Bollywood styles of screen-writing and filmmaking is getting blurred day by day. Both treat the audience like little kids, and expect it to live in the cinematic moment and enjoy it, suspending its faculty of logic, and ever ready to be swept by star power. When the greatest of Hollywood filmmaking icons have embraced this Mantra of survival and success, why would the film's helmer Asgar Leth and his team of writers be any different. Since it also suits the marketing execs of big studios and distribution companies fine, why to complain.
The drama begins in New York when a guy who calls himself Walker checks in a multi-storied New York hotel, takes up one of the higher floor rooms facing the street, climbs out of its window and stands on the ledge to the horror of the passersby below. They take him to be a suicidal case and alert the cops. Walker has a background. He is actually Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington), an ex-cop, serving a 25-year sentence for having stolen a $40 million diamond from a rich realtor David Englander (Ed Harris). He had earlier given a slip to the prison cops who had brought him to attend his father’s (or brother’s?) funeral. Before getting on to the hotel ledge Nick makes sure that the cops who arrive to save his life do not discover his identity immediately. The success of his elaborately planned mission depends on that.
His mission is to prove his innocence. He had not stolen the diamond. He was framed. The detectives on the job Dante Marcus (Titus Welliver) and Jack Dougherty (Edward Burns) try to get him off the ledge but he won’t talk to anyone but detective Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks) a sensitive, conscientious, and benevolent police officer. Now, the issue is if Nick’s plan to have his younger brother Joey (Jamie Bell) and Joey's lissome yet adequately busty girlfriend Angie (Genesis Rodriguez) break into David Englander's treasure vault into the next building will succeed or not. Nick obviously believes that Englander had faked the robbery to get the insurance money to avoid his bankruptcy in a dead real estate market. Lydia Mercer helps him in his quest for justice.
Now, if you look at it from a rational standpoint, the film’s story and plot won’t even pass a cursory scrutiny. There is nothing new here, except the one line idea of a ‘man standing on a ledge’ under the media and police glare, masterminding a break-in next door to prove his innocence. Every twist and turn in the film, even the performances, and its cliff-hanger moments are as predictable and inexplicable and implausible as they can be, yet you can ride through it, without taking anything back with you. If you remember in old Bollywood films there would invariably be a climax scene where the hero was trying to rescue the heroine and fighting the villain at the edge of a cliff and you sat there and watched the drama, knowing it well that the villain would fall to his death and the hero and heroine would reunite for a happy-family photo op.
The power of ‘genre’ cinema of this kind to entertain its audience using the age-old tricks of the screen writing trade is amply evident here. You can sit through the film and enjoy it, and marvel at some of the smart moves here and there, including a CGI created shot of a chase sequence where Nick drives across a railway track, with police cars behind him, and his Jeep’s tail gets banged by a fast running train.
Rating - 2.5/5
Tags : Man On A Ledge Movie Review, Man On A Ledge Movie, Man On A Ledge Review, Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell, Anthony Mackie, Genesis Rodriguez, Ed Harris, Asger Leth
|