The age-old device of telling a story from different points of view in film dates back to Akira Kurosawa’s classic Rashomon. When done in the proper context, it can really provide an elevated level of suspense and intrigue. I’ve always found these films particularly fascinating, not only in their ability to gradually reveal plot details  layer-by-layer, but also in my trying to catch potential flaws in the sequence of events. If everything seems to be at least possible, even if the events are a bit far-fetched, the device can become more than just a gimmick in the right hands. Some of the better examples that come to mind are Brian De Palma’s underrated Blow Out and Tom Tykwer’s superb German import, Run Lola Run.

In this political thriller titled Vantage Point, an assassination attempt on the President of the United States is told through eight different points of view, each providing a unique twist on some of what we’ve seen before. The movie begins rather routinely with a Global Network News (GNN) crew preparing for a live broadcast the President’s appearance at a terrorism summit in Spain. GNN producer Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver) is busy setting up camera coverage and haggling with an inexperienced reporter who likes to editorialize during her segments when the motorcade carrying President Ashton (William Hurt) arrives. Everything seems to be going according to plan, although Rex finds it curious that Secret Service Agent Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid), who had been on sick leave after taking a bullet for the President, is now back on duty.

Barnes and fellow agent Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox) are positioned near the stage where the President is about to speak, keeping a keen eye on their surroundings, when shots ring out and President Ashton goes down. During the ensuing chaos, the President is rushed into an ambulance while Barnes tackles a suspicious man who rushes the stage. While attempting to determine where the shots came from, Barnes also notices a man with a video camera in the audience. After viewing some of his footage, he realizes someone has also planted a bomb under the stage, which then goes off creating even more havoc.

Backtracking some twenty-three minutes earlier before the whole thing began, the point-of-view then switches to Agent Barnes as he prepares to accompany the President in his motorcade. This being his first outing since taking a bullet for the Commander-in-Chief, he’s understandably a little nervous. Agent Taylor, who arranged for this assignment, assures him he’s ready to get back to work. While much of the same story is repeated, Agent Barnes notices other things that raise little red flags about the events taking place, the most telling of which is a moment when he enters the GNN broadcast truck after the explosion and sees something disturbing on a playback videotape.

Speaking of videotapes, that man Barnes spotted with the HD camcorder in the crowd is named Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker) and his point-of-view is next, revealing some curious people in the crowd including a little girl and her mother and a man who seems overly inquisitive about what Lewis is taping. Lewis also zooms in on another odd couple that seems to be having a bit of a lover’s spat just before things go awry. We later shift to the point-of-view of that suspicious man Barnes tackled when he rushed the stage; the man turns out to be a police officer working for the mayor’s office. He’s also somehow connected to that strange couple Lewis spies through his viewfinder and ends up becoming an important link to the events that follow the assassination attempt.

Without revealing too much more, we eventually get to see things unfold through the President’s point-of-view – which leads to one of the film’s most interesting plot twists – and also through the eyes of one of the assassins and his co-conspirators. As I mentioned earlier, telling a story in this format can sometimes lend itself to lapses in logic or situations that seem highly implausible, even if they are at least possible. If there’s one place where Vantage Point falters, it’s during the big climax sequence where the majority of the eight disparate storylines are conveniently intersected at one moment in time that’s supposed to make perfect sense. To be honest, even though it did seem a bit implausible, I still enjoyed the ride while it lasted and was thankful that unlike so many other films of this ilk, it managed to get the job done in a brisk ninety minutes.

Well-made and superbly edited by Stuart Baird (Casino Royale), the film boasts a fine ensemble cast including Dennis Quaid, who carries the brunt of the movie; William Hurt, who becomes much more central to the plot after the halfway mark; and the always-great Forest Whitaker, who begins as an innocent bystander but becomes a lynchpin for everything that follows. While Sigourney Weaver is also good in the opening sequence, she pretty much disappears from the movie after that point. Director Pete Travis, a TV veteran who previously worked with Paul Greengrass on Omagh, makes a fine feature film debut, keeping things moving at a brisk pace without losing track of the multiple storylines.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film’s 2.40:1 aspect ratio is presented in a strong high definition transfer using the AVC video CODEC that boasts a great level of detail while remaining crisp and clear. The movie takes place mostly in broad daylight and the bulk of the outdoor sequences – especially the varying views on the assassination attempt – are all bright and vibrant, awash in sunshine. Despite the brightness, I didn’t detect any signs of blooming or halos and the color balance and saturation levels are all solid. Flesh tones looked natural and black levels were deep and consistent. It was amusing to note that when Lewis looked through his HD camcorder he was shooting in 1080i, yet the image was apparently made to appear grainy and pixilated in order to achieve that “video” look. A full 1080i image transferred over to 1080p would have looked much sharper and cleaner. Details such as the fabric on President Ashton’s suit and tie and the intricate statues adorning the lavish Spanish palace where the president is speaking all looked remarkably sharp and three-dimensional. Overall, a very good and consistent video presentation.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

Vantage Point boasts an impressive Dolby TrueHD 5.1 that’s right up there with its video counterpart. With a clear and concise center channel presentation and an ambient discrete surround mix, the soundtrack provides a realistic aural experience that complements the visual effects onscreen. From the thunderous explosion just after the assassination attempt to the multiple car crashes during the movie’s final act, all six channels get an active and aggressive workout. Crowd noise and screams during the assassination also emanate from the left, right, and rear speakers, providing an important sense of direction during an otherwise chaotic event. Dialogue remains clear and concise through the center channel, while Atli Orvarsson’s pounding and relentless original score gets prominent placement across the front channels. The bottom end also gets to flex some muscle during two bombing sequences and when Barnes is chasing one of the suspected assassins through the streets near the climax. Overall, a very good and punchy audio presentation.

The optional subtitles are in English SDH, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai.

The Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Like the movie, the BD of Vantage Point offers some clever twists on more traditional supplementary material. First, though, is the typical run-of-the-mill feature-length running commentary track by director Pete Travis. While Travis seems amiable enough and does provide some interesting information about the production, he also seems a bit nervous and reluctant to talk about his first major feature film project, which translates into several long stretches of unwelcomed silence. He does go to great pains to explain how much effort was put into making sure all the concurrent storylines were credible and didn’t contradict the other points of view. His attention to detail was also impressive and made me appreciate the film’s structure – flaws and all – a bit more.

The first of three featurettes is titled An Inside Perspective (26:45, 1080p) which is pretty much your typical Electronic Press Kit offering “talking head” interviews with the key cast and crew members, including director Travis. Here, the director seems a bit more relaxed and displays a sense of humor; that seemed missing on his solo commentary track. In many ways, I think he does a better job explaining the film’s premise than he does in the running commentary. The actors also chime in on what drew them to the project with most claiming to have been impressed by Barry Levy’s original screenplay.

Plotting an Assassination (16:00, 1080p) is similar to the previous featurette, but focuses specifically on how they attempted to keep track of the various characters throughout the film and, once again, ensure that all the diverging plotlines clicked into place for that final intersecting climax.

Last, Coordinating Chaos (7:30, 480p) is a segment on all the elaborate stunt and special effects work that went into the production, some of which is quite impressive. There were a couple of car crash bits that looked very realistic and jarring.

A standalone bonus feature titled Suveillance Tapes (0:45) is actually an amusing outtake of director Peter Travis storming into a room and firing a gun, obviously mimicking a scene from the film.

The most unique and interesting bonus feature is titled Vantage View: GPS Tracker, which is an onscreen display you can watch during the film proper to keep track of all eight key characters on a small inset map. I had fun tracking all the characters during a good half-hour of the movie and thought this was a neat option. A word of warning: you really shouldn’t access this feature until after watching the movie, since it gives away some important information about the whereabouts of key characters early on.

The disc also includes some BD Live features that I couldn’t access via my Profile 1.1 player.

The BD includes high defintion trailers for 21, Persepolis, Prom Night, The Other Boleyn Girl, Made of Honor, Across the Universe, and Steep.

The 90-minute film is divided into sixteen chapters.

Final Thoughts

I’m always game for an intelligent and well-crafted bit of political intrigue and Vantage Point certainly fills the bill. It’s a brisk and competent thriller that is well-directed, well-acted, and wholly entertaining. While the idea of telling the same story from different points of view isn’t new and other films have done it better, Vantage Point is smart enough to know its limitations and gets the job done without straying too far off course. With a top-notch video and audio presentation and a decent and unique collection of bonus materials, this BD is highly recommended.


Here’s a note about the apparent duplicate Buy Guide. Our I.T. people are still hard at work on a large project and have not yet had the time to modify the underlying site database formatting code to accommodate the new 0-to-10 rating scales. So until they do, for HD on disc, I’ll insert this note and a Buy Guide at the end of the review text and leave the conventional 0-to-5 Buy Guide blank.