Posted: Sunday 3rd August 2008

During an anti-war summit in Spain, President Ashton (William Hurt) is shot. The assassination is the first of a series of terrorist activities leaving those involved confused, in danger and horrified. As several key witnesses try to figure out who shot the President and why, their stories are told from their individual viewpoints, slowly revealing how the events unfolded and who is responsible.

Vantage Point tries to inject new life into the political thriller genre with it’s unique narrative style. Although the movie isn’t the first to show the same event from a series of viewpoints, it does manage to keep you guessing and constantly surprises with its revelations. We didn’t see the majority of the twists coming and normally with this kind of movie we see them a mile off.

Key witnesses to the day’s events include American crowd-member Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker), TV producer Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver), Spanish police officer Enrique (Eduardo Noreiga), Secret Service agents Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox) and Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and President Ashton himself. Each of the characters involved has a unique view of what happened and it’s really interesting watching their versions unfold one-by-one.

The success of Vantage Point lies in two areas; the director and the cast. Pete Travis’ direction ensures that the film plays its cards close to its chest, only revealing a twist when it needs to. Travis has a background in TV and this feature film is his first turn as a movie director. He uses clever techniques to ensure that key facts aren’t revealed to the viewer until the very end of the movie so it doesn’t run the film’s final twist. In terms of the cast Forest Whitaker and Matthew Fox are the standouts. Whitaker has a tendency to go over-the-top but with this performance he doesn’t. He plays Howard very sensitively as he goes from no-one to reluctant hero over the course of the film. Matthew Fox on the other hand plays a character very different to his signature character, Jack from Lost. Fox has charisma and a great screen presence and we hope to see him in more movies as Lost draws to a close.

Vantage Point is released on both DVD and Blu-ray. The Blu-ray edition contains a wealth of extras including a commentary, featurettes and a unique GPS feature that you can switch on during the movie and track the key characters’ whereabouts. This is a really unique and interesting feature and we had a lot of fun with it.

Political thrillers may be back on the map thanks to Vantage Point It manages to reverse all the bad that Kiefer Sutherland’s The Sentinel committed and is an intelligent, intense and gripping movie. With a strong cast and superb direction, the movie is one of the best we’ve seen in this genre for some time. Vantage Point is 90 minutes of pure adrenaline and we loved every second.