Vantage Point is a conspiracy thriller that's told through the eyes of its numerous characters. Think of it as Rashomon - for Generation X box.
The game kicks off with the US president in Spain for an anti-terrorist summit and promptly being assassinated by a sniper.
In the immediate aftermath, Dennis Quaid's secret service agent tries to apprehend the shooter. His task is complicated by several deadly explosions and a conspiracy that'd make Jack Bauer's head spin. And that's what this film feels like – an entire season of 24 compressed into 85 adrenalised minutes.
Vantage Point's gimmick is that we see key events repeat over and over again, from different vantage points. There's Sigourney Weaver's TV producer, Forest Whitaker's tourist with a video camera, a Spanish detective, members of a terrorist cell and the US President himself.
The first two thirds of the movie, in which each replayed sequence ends with a cliffhanging new piece of the puzzle, are well put together and exciting. But when it tries to wrap things up Vantage Point had the audience hooting with laughter at the convenient coincidences and truly daft dialogue.
Unlike Rashomon, the touchstone for the multiple viewpoint movie, Vantage Point's structure doesn't illuminate the subjective nature of truth. Instead, it makes a stock-standard conspiracy plot seem more complex than it is.
Depending on how you look at it, this is both a slick thriller and spectacularly silly action schlock. What gets it over the line – just – is the breathless pace and a top cast making one-dimensional characters more involving than they should be.
This may be all style and structure over substance but there's also enough suspense for Vantage Point to rate three stars.
