Thomas Barnes and Kent Taylor are two Secret Service agents assigned to protect President Ashton at a landmark summit on the global war on terror. When President Ashton is shot moments after his arrival in Spain, chaos ensues and disparate lives collide in the hunt for the assassin. In the crowd is Howard Lewis, an American tourist who thinks he's captured the shooter on his camcorder while videotaping the event for his kids back home. Also there is American TV news producer Rex Brooks, relaying the historic event to millions of TV viewers across the globe. As they and others reveal their stories, the pieces of the puzzle will fall into place - and it will become apparent that shocking motivations lurk just beneath the surface.

Coming into the film I was expecting a slick and stylized action film what I got was not what I expected. Sure there is plenty of stylized action in the movie but the movie was more than just that. The film also is a great heist film filled with plenty of drama and some slapstick British comedy. That is what kind of throws you off is that the movie isn't your traditional Hollywood Blockbuster instead more like the old British heist movies of the late 1960's. From films like the original Italian Job and Thomas Crown Affair the movie takes its cue from these kind of classics with its tongue in cheek humor and black comedy. Then mix it plenty of action sequences and the movie is sheer fun and highly enjoyable.

This is the kind of film that you are either going to really dig its style or that style is going to drive you mad and you are going to end up hating the movie. The film is called Vantage Point for a reason as it takes the vantage points of many different bystanders to one event and slowly unravels a story of what truly happened as no single person saw or understood everything that happened. So this can drive some movie goers to distraction as it takes a very long time for the plot to unfold and for you as a movie goer to figure out everything that is going on. Now for me I really enjoyed slowly putting all the pieces together like a complicated jigsaw puzzle as it kept me intrigued into the story and glued to my seat.

Now this isn't the first time this story telling technique has been used as Akira Kurisowa did in the early 1950's in his classic Rashomon but for many younger audiences this might be their first exposure to such a unique plot device. And I worry about younger audiences as far as that goes because of the shorter attention spans and the constant need and desire to have everything right now an instantly. Waiting for a plot to unfold and unravel is a testament of patience and how well it is done if it is still going to keep you intrigued in the story.

They got a cast chock full of big names which helps because each character has to get carry a portion of the film as it switches from each of their vantage points. It makes every role important as they rarely interact with each other. Matthew Fox and Forest Whitaker were both fantastic in their roles and even Jeff Daniels puts in a decent performance. The movie is definitly worth seeing even if it is flawed.

Grade: B-