Vantage Point (2000, United States)

political assassination political mystery

Running time: 98 minutes

Language: English

Locations: the story takes place in Salamanca Castile and Le?n Spain

Vantage Point 2000 American mystery classic movie review

In Salamanca, Spain, the US President Henry Ashton is making a public appearance while attending an anti-terrorist summit. Two shots rung out as soon as he walks to the podium, which triggers the chain of events. While the Secret Service begins to evacuate the president, an explosion outside of the venue. Moments later, a secondary explosion at the podium kills and injures numerous people. From that point, we see the events as they unfold through the eyes of different people that were there - the Secret Service agent Thomas Barnes, TV producer Rex Brooks in charge of the live coverage of the event, a Spanish police officer guarding the Mayor of Salamanca, and a few more. Each of those points of views reveals a new layer to what had happened just moments ago.

Vantage Point was based on perhaps not the most original idea of showing different points of view, but with an interesting premise, the creators manage to pull off a decent film. Retelling the same story reveals new aspects of what had happened and shows a different side of the characters involved, which, in a way, was unique, however this gimmick worked perfectly well at the beginning of the story and with time just got bogged down by not great screenplay. And it is a shame because it had a potential to be a great movie if only more attention was paid to the details.

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