VANTAGE POINT (Rated PG-13)

Harkening back to the 2004 terrorist bombings on commuter trains in Madrid, one has to wonder what the Prime Minister of Spain thinks of Vantage Point, which puts the Spanish town of Salamanca in the crosshairs of a terrorist plot during a landmark summit on the global war on terror.

Gathering the heads of state in any one location runs a great security risk, and Vantage Point is only too willing to explore the possibility of a serious breakdown in the protective guard that surrounds high-profile events of this kind. For good measure, the film taps into sensible paranoia of the modern age.

The action-packed thriller owes much of its perspective to the classic Japanese film Rashomon. The innovative effort of legendary director Akira Kurosawa created an unusual narrative structure that attempted to arrive at the truth of a brutal crime by demonstrating the differing accounts of several witnesses.

While the Japanese classic was heavy on the psychological overtones, Vantage Point leans to the point of view of various players, from the innocent bystander to the active participants in the plot. Hence, the psychology is colored by the level of self-interest of the individual witness.

At the film’s opening, the audience relives the assassination attempt on the president of the United States (William Hurt) from so many angles that it is easy to lose count. The film’s advertising says that eight strangers with eight different points of view try to unlock the truth.

As the president’s motorcade works its way to the site of the summit in the town’s central square, the first view is from the American cable news network covering the historic event, mostly from the perspective of frenzied TV news producer Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver), who working from inside a trailer located on the perimeter has probably the least advantageous observation point.

Other than the actual perpetrators, two Secret Service agents assigned to President Ashton probably have the best view, since they are most attuned to this sort of danger. This is particularly true for agent Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid), who previously took a bullet about a year before while protecting the commander in chief.

Other agents have doubts that Barnes is ready to enter the fray once more, and even Barnes’ partner, agent Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox), is dubious. However, Barnes is the key player because he is more tenacious than a pit bull in doing his job. Under fire when the assassination attempt goes down, Barnes dispels any notion that his psyche is too wobbly for effective action.

There are other perspectives to the crime. In the crowd is ordinary American tourist Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker), who thinks he’s captured the shooter on his camcorder while videotaping the event for his kids back home. A Spanish police officer (Eduardo Noriega) suspects that his girlfriend is cheating on him and then stumbles on something far more insidious. Not to be left out of all this is the president himself, who has to cope with trusted aides while pondering whether to launch an air strike on a terrorist camp in Morocco.

As each vantage point is explored, it is incumbent on the audience to pay attention to the details, catching a glimpse here and there of potential clues, no matter how remote or obscure. In some ways, the storytelling is akin to peeling layers off an onion, and the mind races to figure out whether discovered tidbits lead to a grander revelation. But you can’t get too comfortable mulling over the various options, because then the movie cranks up the action in a series of gun shots and bomb blasts topped off by a terrific car chase.

Dennis Quaid’s secret service agent shines not just for his nervous, tortured effort to pull himself back into the game. His agent Thomas Barnes is the film’s real action hero, particularly when he commandeers a car to give a nail-biting high speed chase to a fleeing terrorist through the narrow streets of Salamanca.

But for all of its energy and pumped-up action scenes, Vantage Point doesn’t rise above the ordinary as a thriller. Indeed, too many coincidences and contrivances undermine the overall specter of credible action, which for the most part is a jumbled mess of plot twists.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

Three estranged brothers plan a trip through India to rediscover their familial bond a year after their father’s death. This sounds like a high-brow art film to be avoided, but that would be a mistake.

The Darjeeling Limited features an amazing cast for the siblings, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman. This offbeat movie is a comedic gem, offering up all sorts of unexpected twists and turns for these travelers on a spiritual journey through a mysterious foreign land.

While the brothers may have expected their “spiritual quest” to produce satisfactory results, instead they find themselves stranded in the middle of the desert with 11 suitcases, a printer and a laminating machine. The journey gets even weirder after that.

The Darjeeling Limited DVD includes an odd featurette, Hotel Chevalier, where Natalie Portman plays Schwartzman’s unhappy girlfriend.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

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