I like the idea of this movie, which follows an attempted assassination of the American president from several points of view, replaying the same 23 minutes multiple times. The action takes place entirely in an unnamed Spanish city, where the president (William Hurt) is to give a speech kicking off a peace summit. We start off watching from inside the control room at “Global News Network,” where a director (Sigourney Weaver) is berating a reporter for mentioning the protesters present at the event. After we follow the shooting and its immediate aftermath, everything rewinds, and we watch again, but from a different view, learning more as the action takes in the secret service agents (primarily one played by Dennis Quaid), a video-camera-wielding tourist (Forest Whitaker), and eventually the usual evildoers.
It’s not exactly Rashomon—different characters aren’t seeing the same events differently, but rather see different pieces of the same event. Still, director Pete Travis does put all of them together quite effectively, and tops it all off with an above-average car chase, even if he does overdo the close-ups. Inevitably, the outcome relies on the perpetrators executing a sophisticated plan perfectly, yet in the end making an error that is a) telegraphed to the audience; b) the sort you've seen in many other movies; and c) one not even a first-time evildoer would be stupid enough to make. The major twists—there are two—are surprises precisely because they’re difficult to believe. Disappointing, but not enough that I still didn't feel entertained. Interestingly, the movie matches an idealistic portrayal of the president, who wisely resists the hawkish advice of his advisors, with an extremely cynical one of the media, who prefer to package the story rather than report it.
IMDB link
viewed and reviewed 2/23/08
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