Director Pete Travis begins with a whizbang set-up: In a plaza in a Spanish city, the president of the United States (William Hurt) is shot, then a bomb destroys the podium. It's all captured by cable-news cameras, and a TV producer (Sigourney Weaver) is trying to sort out the chaos and different camera angles. Meanwhile, Tom Barnes (Dennis Quaid), a Secret Service agent back on duty after previously taking a bullet for this president, is scrambling with his partner, Kent Taylor ("Lost's" Matthew Fox), to locate the shooter amid the carnage.
That's just the beginning. After a few minutes, the movie rewinds to the starting point (a clock superimposed on the corner says it's exactly 12 noon), and we see the whole series of events from Barnes' point of view just before the assassination attempt. Then the movie rewinds again, seeing the same crucial minutes from the viewpoint of a Spanish cop, Enrique (Eduardo Noriega), in the middle of the action. Then we see it all again, courtesy of a U.S. tourist (Forest Whitaker) who got it all on his camcorder.
With each pass - and a couple more before it's over - the script (by first-timer Barry L. Levy) reveals new twists and added levels of intrigue. Unfortunately, the movie never knows when to say "enough," and the twists devolve from intriguing to improbable and finally to out-and-out laughable. (Without spoiling too much, let's just say that ever since "Air Force One," movie presidents have to be adept in hand-to-hand combat.)
Before that, the movie moves like a rocket. Travis (making his Hollywood debut after much work on British TV) manages the intricacies of the multiview format brilliantly and stages one of the more breathtaking car chases in a long while. So enjoy "Vantage Point" while the thrills last, and try to ignore the "what the heck?" stretches of credulity in the final reels.
---
* SEAN P. MEANS can be reached at movies@sltrib.com or 801-257-8602. Send comments about this review to livingeditor@sltrib.com.
Vantage Point
WHERE: Theaters everywhere.
WHEN: Opens today.
RATING: PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, some disturbing images and brief strong language.
RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes.
BOTTOM LINE: A crackerjack premise keeps this thriller moving, until the twists get ridiculously implausible.
