Vantage Point

"Vantage Point" is three-fourths of a terrific thriller, which in this dreary run of winter movies feels like Six Feet Under to our stale Big Brother. The setup is so riveting, the suspense so carefully prolonged, that I didn't mind when it unraveled into lunacy near the end.

To reveal plot points would be to pretend like I understood everything. Suffice to say that the story links a U.S. president at an anti-terrorist summit in Spain (William Hurt), a Secret Service agent fighting off a nervous breakdown (Dennis Quaid), a Spaniard who may or may not be a clean cop (Eduardo Noriega), a U.S. tourist with an all-seeing camera (Forest Whitaker), a special forces agent forced into aiding bombers to protect his brother (Edgar Ramirez) and half a dozen minor players.

The story is told as deja vu. We see the long opening scene six times, from different peoples' viewpoints. Only when the story finally moves on from there do we begin to put the pieces together. If you don't find this technique or the occasional handheld camerawork off-putting, you'll be caught up in a quick narrative that concludes with a "Bourne"-style car chase through Salamanca's streets, though this chase was a tad prolonged.

Director Pete Travis and writer Barry Levy make their feature film debuts with stylish efficiency until they succumb to the cliche effect that overtake virtually every Hollywood action film by the finale.

Skimpy European cars smash into buildings and suffer only dings; a man's vehicle is rolled and crushed by a huge truck, yet he kicks out the windshield and dashes off without a cut or a bruise. Most absurdly, not a single character wears a bulletproof vest.

Acting's almost beside the point in a film fueled so much by adrenaline, but Quaid makes a ridiculously over-the-top hero out of his tireless, frustrated agent. The filmmakers wisely cast familiar faces in supporting roles -- including Sigourney Weaver, and Matthew Fox of "Lost" -- so we can never be sure which seemingly insignificant character will suddenly take on importance.

The movie's one failing, aside from the superhero antics, mediocre acting, not enough Sigourney Weaver, and God awful dialoge at times, is its refusal to explain people's motives -- especially the mole working on the U.S. side. (C'mon, you knew there was one. There had to be for someone to pull off an involved assassination attempt.) "We can never win this war on terror!" the character barks after being exposed. If that's reason enough to join the other side, we all might as well give up now.

B-