Giovanni's Movie Review: MAN ON A LEDGE

Screenwriter Pablo F. Fenjves deserves a bit of credit for the unique, albeit gimmicky, story found within Man on a Ledge. The idea of focusing a thriller around a man threatening to jump to his death in an effort to distract police while a mysterious crime is being perpetrated is pretty fresh.

In this film we meet Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington), a prisoner who is allowed to leave the penitentiary for one day to attend his father’s funeral. But once at the ceremony, a fight between Nick and his brother Joey (Jamie Bell) breaks out, giving Nick the opportunity to outsmart two officers and escape custody. Once free, he heads to the Roosevelt Hotel and climbs out onto a ledge, threatening to jump unless the police send Lydia Mercer (a feisty detective whose claim to fame is failing to save another jumper’s life).

So why exactly is Nick’s purpose for being there? As it turns out, the whole thing is a distraction so Joey and his girlfriend Angie (Genesis Rodriguez) can break into an adjacent building Mission Impossible-style, and find a diamond that Nick was accused of stealing, proving his innocence. On paper, it sounds like it should be a tense heist that could go wrong at any second. The problem is that it’s not. Right from the start, everything works out so conveniently that there’s no time where it seems the plan, which involves duping an entire police force and outsmarting the security system of a major corporation, will go wrong. It’s all so ridiculously perfect that the movie quickly becomes boring, never offering a moment of danger or suspense.

The ultimate failure in this regard is how dull the actual ledge portions are. This is as much the fault of Asger Leth’s dramatically tame direction as it is Paul Cameron’s camerawork. Many films are able to replicate a fear of heights, taking advantage of the big screen with shots that emphasize vertical distance (like Hitchcock’s Vertigo). But Cameron utilizes only a handful of angles, including slow pans up the side of the building and ledge-down shots that actually make the height look short. Even though it was filmed using an actual high-rise ledge, it unfortunately feels like all CG set work.

As far as performances, most of the focus is on Banks and Worthington. The former handles her spunky role well, giving Mercer some fiery wit; but the latter isn’t as graceful. Nick spends most of the film looking panicked and barking out vague questions about innocence and ‘protecting your family.’ It’s a boring, overly dramatic role, which Worthington plays with equal tedium. The heist side of the film fares a bit better acting-wise, with lighter performances from Bell and Rodriguez. At least their moments of comic relief are more appropriate for the ridiculous plot unfolding.

The only thing that really stands out is the movie’s b-plot, so to speak, involving New Yorkers gathering around Nick waiting to see if he’s going to jump. Leth gives brief moments of biting satire here, effectively poking fun of people’s love for schadenfreude. And isn’t that really the appeal of Man on a Ledge? It’s a film that plays with Chekhov’s gun theory in the title alone. If you put a man on a ledge, audiences will theoretically grip their seats waiting to see if the man falls off the ledge. But rather than being tense, the irritatingly perfect thriller may only inspire viewers to side with one of the film’s impatient onlookers: “Just jump already!”