Video Fun House film fans Jean Tarbett Hardiman and John Gillispie enjoyed the thriller "Vantage Point," rated PG-13 and starring Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver and William Hurt.
JOHN: Remember the little game back in grade school, when the teacher would whisper something in the ear of the student in the first seat in a row?
JEAN: No. How's it work?
JOHN: Each student was supposed to whisper the same thing to the person sitting behind them. But, nine times out of 10, by the time you got to the person in the last seat, the phrase the teacher had whispered had been twisted around and totally changed.
JEAN: Oh, you mean "Telephone." We played that at birthday parties. But I see where you're going with this. "Vantage Point" provides a similar twist as the viewer gets to see several different points of view through the eyes of people witnessing an assassination attempt on the president of the United States.
JOHN: As you see the action through different people's eyes, you start to piece the entire puzzle together, and "Vantage Point" succeeds in showing you an action-packed and clever mystery to solve. And, in all fairness, the clues are there to be spotted.
JEAN: I loved the way the writer and director pieced this plot together. It's just a series of clips that all start in the moments before the president's speech at a summit about global war, set in Spain. In seeing it through each character's eyes, you start in a different place before the speech. Everybody in the story sees the shooting from a different viewpoint, and everybody ends up going in a different direction afterward. I was amazed at how they could weave together so many different back stories into one major event. But I didn't catch many clues about who did it. I know you did, John, but maybe I was too awed by the creative plot line.
JOHN: A good excuse. In a movie filled with stars, Dennis Quaid gets the juiciest part as a Secret Service agent who has just returned to work after recovering from gunshots he received when diving in front of the president (William Hurt).
JEAN: Matthew Fox (star of "Lost" and "We Are Marshall") gets another notable movie role as a fellow Secret Service agent. As a tourist wielding a video camera, Forest Whitaker gets involved in the action and tries to save a young girl who is separated from her mother during the panic that follows the shooting.
Spanish actor Eduardo Noriega and Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez are really good in this, too, as characters in the thick of the action.
JOHN: Sigourney Weaver has a very small part, but her character starts the movie strongly as an employee of a news network covering the president's visit to Spain. Weaver's character has a sharp tongue and bosses her staff with ease. She has a few good moments when reacting to the tragedy unfolding before her, but I wish she had had a bigger part.
JEAN: "Vantage Point" has so many actors that it could have become confusing, but the story unfolds in a way to help the viewer keep up with what is happening, at least for the most part. It's one of a few movies I've seen that I've wanted to watch again immediately, so I could see the story again knowing what's really going on. I didn't do that, but I did watch one of the special features on how writer Barry Levy came up with the idea and how director Pete Travis and all the actors brought it to life. It really is one of the most creative movies I've seen in a while. The assassination of a president is a very serious matter, so I can't really say "Vantage Point" is a "fun" ride, but it gets the blood pumping and I recommend it.
JOHN: Copy that.
Jean Tarbett Hardiman is a reporter for The Herald-Dispatch. John Gillispie is the public relations director for the Huntington Museum of Art. Contact the writers at jeant@herald-dispatch.com.
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