Man on a Ledge

Jumping off a building doesn't exactly seem the best way to go. But in Nick Cassidy's plan it's a sure fire way of attracting attention and distracting the cops. Director Asger Leth and writer Pablo F. Fenjves have created a typical Hollywood thriller in what is typical January movie.

After breaking out of prison Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) goes to the Roosevelt Hotel in NYC and asks for a particular room 2105 checking in with the name of Walters. He orders room service and wipes his fingerprints off everything before taking a deep breath stepping out of the window onto the ledge of the 21rst floor. (Interesting side note: No blue screen was used. The look of fear on Worthington's face is real as it truly was his first time outside of a building at the height even though he was secured by wires). It doesn't take long for the people below begin to notice and gather. Seen it all police psychologist Jack Dougherty (Ed Burns) is on the scene first but Nick asks for Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks) by name. Among her colleagues she has the reputation of being the Grimm Reaper as her last intervention was with a rookie cop who eventually jumped off the bridge. She doesn't really want to take on another job but the case is looking interesting. The lack of fingerprints leads her to seek out more information, plus the man on the ledge seems to be well informed about who she is and police procedure. Nick feeds her just enough tidbits to buy time.

Turns out that Nick was once a NYPD officer who was sentenced to 25 years in Sing Sing for stealing a huge diamond from real estate tycoon David Englander (Ed Harris). You know right away that he was set up because Englander is such a malicious character who seems to have some police officers and the mayor in his back pocket. It seems that Englander used Nick to collect $40 million dollars in an insurance scam. For the past 3 years Nick has been planning to prove his innocence. This involves younger brother Joey (Jamie Bell) and his girlfriend Angie (Genesis Rodriguez) doing some Mission Impossible stuff in the building across from where Nick is staging his suicide threat. The banter between these two is probably worth a movie of their own.

Like Colin Farrell in Phone Booth, Worthington spends most of the movie in one place or pacing on the a few inches of the ledge. Fortunately the camera tracks the supporting players machinations like Kyra Sedgwick as reporter Suzie Morales (!?!) looking for the big story, Titus Wlliver as Dante Marcus who wants to send in the swat team after getting pressure from Englander and Anthony Mackie as Mike Ackerman, Nicks old partner who gets progressively nervous as the film goes on. There's a few exciting moments as expected form a heist/revenge/thriller. However those moments lose momentum from waiting for the plot and the pieces to fall into place. It takes so long for Lydia to figure out what's happening, Like Contraband that just opened, Man on the Ledge is relies on cheap thrills to get the audience into the theater. But after you know what happens, you forget about it quickly.
(Review by reesa)