Starring: Sam Worthington, Elisabeth Banks, Ed Harris, Ed
Burns, Jamie Bell, Genesis Rodriguez, Anthony Mackie, Kyra Sedgwick
Director: Asger Leth
Released by: Entertainment One UK
Released: Out Now
Released: Out Now
It’s quite clear that, some movie tricks aside, Sam
Worthington (the ‘Man’ of the title) does not suffer from vertigo.
The Avatar/Clash of the Titans actor plays Nick Cassidy, an
ex-cop in jail for the apparent theft of a nearly priceless diamond owned by
mogul David Englander (Harris). With ‘Fugitive’ like flair, Cassidy escapes
from custody while attending his father’s funeral and makes his way to New York
City. More accurately, he makes his way to a hotel room many floors up... and
then leaves the room, not via the door, but the window. As a crowd gathers
below and a range of cops (Banks, Burns, Mackie) fret within, everyone tries to
work out why he’s decided to end it all and how they can get him back inside
(the room AND prison) from that pesky ledge.
The problem is that Cassidy has no interest in either returning to the
room or hitting the side-walk... the real drama is happening a block away and
is part of a long-established plan of revenge.
One problem with ‘Ledge’ is that the trailer gives away
several major ‘twists’ and the film itself plays some of its stacked deck far
too early. Audiences like intrigue, yet a third of the way in, we know most of
the conceits. The plot gamely plays out, with fun, thrills and spills but
equally starts to shamelessly mine the clichés, each somewhat weakening
internal logic. Unlike, say, Phone Booth (which genuinely took a singular, everyday
location and made it thrillingly pivotal to its story) ‘Ledge’ constantly
strains at its own restrictions, not quite confident enough to make the most of
its marked territory.
Harris does his best Mr Burns impression, Bell and
Rodriguez as Cassidy’s family
accomplices provide the high-up heist fun, but Sedgwick’s caricatured reporter,
segueing like a cable harpy on the street below, is an inexcusable waste of her
talents and feels like a day-player.
Another film where the third act fails to quite live up to a
potentially interesting premise, ‘Ledge’ is an enjoyably silly thriller that
has just a little weight but no specific gravity.
3/5
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