Review:
"Man on a Ledge"
Release Date: Jan. 27, 2012
Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 102 minutes The desired reaction to Man on a Ledge surely does not include wanting Sam Worthington’s disgraced ex-cop to put us out of our misery by falling hundreds of feet to his death. This revenge thriller, though, not only tests our patience, it goes out of our way to insult our intelligence. It’s easy to imagine screenwriter Pablo Fenjves enjoying a “Eureka” moment after finishing Man on a Ledge because he thought he wrote a smart, unconventional and unpredictable thriller. Man on a Ledge may work on paper but the film that’s briskly but shoddily directed by Asger Leth is as dumb as they come. The only thingMan on a Ledge succeeds in doing is raising countless questions about the absurdity of the situation. Why does Worthington, who maintains he did not steal a $40 million diamond from Ed Harris’ real estate mogul, believe the only way to distract attention away from his real plan to clear his name is to pretend that he’s going to throw him off his hotel room’s ledge that’s opposite Harris’ office building? If Worthington’s conviction was such huge news, why don’t the cops (Elizabeth Banks and Edward Burns) trying to talk him off the ledge immediately recognize him? If Harris is so cunning, why does he often make it so easy for Worthington’s brother and his girlfriend ((Jamie Bell and Génesis Rodriguez) to break into his office building to gather evidence against him? How soon we will discover what role Worthington’s ex-partner (Anthony Mackie) played in his framing? How long will it take before the red-hot Rodriguez is required to strip down to her undies for Worthington’s sake? When will someone gathered outside the hotel start screaming, “Attica! Attica!”? Couldn’t the cast, especially the alarmingly gaunt Harris, find a better paycheck job than Man on a Ledge? The questions mount up to the point of distraction. Which is OK, because Man on a Ledge doesn’t give us any other reasons to care about Worthington’s bid to prove his innocence. Robert Sims Aired: Jan. 26, 2012 Web site: https://www.facebook.com/ManOnALedge |
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