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| Sam Worthington and Elizabeth Banks in Man on a Ledge. © Summit Entertainment. |
Before entering the screening of Man on a Ledge, one could have an idea of what plot devices the movie, given its genre, would resort to. As the 102 minutes went by, many of them were confirmed: the flashback explaning how it all began, the old friend who decides to help the protagonist, the comic relief provided by a duo of supporting characters, the phlegmatic and calculating villain.
As you can see, there is no shortage of cliché in this thriller by unknown director Asger Leth. Nonetheless, Man on a Ledge has, at first, an interesting premise: some guy named Mr. Walker -- who is obviously lying about his name -- enters the Roosevelt Hotel, rents a room on the top floor, and, upon finding himself alone, goes out the window and stands on the ledge. Down in the street, pedestrians soon notice the procedure of the assumed jumper, and the police are called. The film then goes back in time to show how the man, an ex-cop whose name is actually Nick Cassidy, became a fugitive after being charged for the stealing of a million dollar diamond and sentenced to 25 years of imprisionment.
Back to present, the police have isolated the area and are trying to convince Nick to go back inside. As the crowd in the street becomes increasingly enthusiastic about the event, the man on a ledge remains unyielding to a negotiator's plea and, despite making no requests, threatens to jump unless he speaks to a woman -- the police psychologist Lydia Mercer, to be more specific. That's where the subplot steps in: a man and a woman -- he, as the flashback has shown, is Nick's brother -- take advantage of the police's distraction and try to break into a nearby building.
By this point, the movie walks the path of one of those twist-filled action thrillers. We find out that the negotiator requested by Nick failed the last time she tried to convince a man not to jump (from the Brooklyn Bridge, in this case), and that, for that reason, her self-assurance is shattered. As expected, a link is established between the man who threatens to jump and the crime that takes place in the building next door. Nick even says something about some "decision" Lydia will have to make, raising expectations. As the dialogue between the two takes shape, the two hypoteses conflict: would the protagonist's behavior be the result of despair or just a smokescreen for whatever is going on in the subplot?
Once the movie's pace is established, more factors are added to the equation. The police discovers the man's true identity. He claims he's innocent. Overall, Man on a Ledge proves to be efficient as entertainment: the flow is consistent, the action is elaborate and there's good chemistry between Sam Worthington and Elizabeth Banks. It's too bad, though, that in the middle of the chaos triggered by the jumper in New York, whopping clichés emerge -- from the hypocritical reporter (well played by the star of The Closer, Kyra Sedgwick) who spares no effort in the coverage of the event, to the hippie who protests again the police's action -- and the movie ends up becoming predictable. Yes, there are good moments -- like one of the few genuinely funny scenes, in which Nick, in an effort to induce the crowd to invade the isolated area and hinder the police's action, throws money up -- but they are overruled by confusing storytelling (there's only one flashback, that tells us very little), blank direction, and a poor cast. Worthington is exactly the same as in Avatar -- a movie from which he has been unsuccessfully trying to disassociate his image; Banks adds nothing to her formulatic character; the racial quotas are obvious in the casting. Not even the veteran Ed Harris, to whom is given the shallow role of the arrogant businessman that ruins Nick's life, is compelling.
Not even all these problems, though, are enough to justify the film's biggest slip: a lukewarm, predictable, laughably feel-good ending. Once the end credits begin to roll, it's inevitable to wonder "Does it end like that?" Until this point, however, the plot holds attention enough to keep the viewer wondering "So, will he jump or what?"
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