Action-thriller? Yawn.
In this unnecessary convoluted film from director Asger Leth and screenwriter Pablo Fenjves—who ghostwrote O.J. Simpson’s canceled book “If I Did It,” in which he hypothetically described the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goodman—a bunch of simultaneous things happen in such needlessly complicated ways that it would take too long to fully explain them. And remember how I promised you a short review? You’re welcome.
If you’ve seen a trailer for “Man on a Ledge,” you have most of the film’s elements in place already. Former cop-turned-convict Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington), under the guise of attending his father’s funeral, flees his guardians, crashes a truck, waltzes into a fancy New York City hotel, eats a huge breakfast, and then finds his way onto his room’s ledge, more than 50 floors up. He was sent away for supposedly stealing a huge diamond from seriously rich, seriously corrupt businessman David Englander (Ed Harris), but Cassidy wants everyone to know he’s innocent—and yelling at the crowd dozens of floors below is a way to do that, I guess.
Soon Cassidy is joined by NYPD psychologist Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks), whom he requests by name and who is tasked with talking him down. She’s pretty but conflicted, he’s rugged and persuasive. Lots of talking at each other and false bravado goes down.
But what Mercer doesn’t know is that Cassidy wants to be on the ledge for as long as possible, so that his brother Joey (Jamie Bell) and Joey’s girlfriend Angie (Génesis Rodríguez) can pull off a heist of Englander’s super-secret vault. They’ll steal some expensive stuff, prove Cassidy’s innocence, and also undermine Englander, who Cassidy is convinced set him up.
The story jumps between those two narratives, with a variety of other bit players: Cassidy’s old partner Mike (Anthony Mackie), other cops Nathan (Titus Welliver) and Jack (Edward Burns), and TV reporter Suzie Morales (Kyra Sedgwick). Some of them matter, some of them don’t, but they nearly all phone it in—which is most depressing for those actors who really deserve better, like Mackie. To go from such a strong supporting turn in “The Hurt Locker” to films like this and “Real Steel”? Upsetting.
While watching films, of course we’re supposed to suspend our disbelief and get into the improbability of what’s happening onscreen. But everything here is just. So. Improbable. How can Joey and Angie have everything they need to break into a huge vault in just a few duffel bags? (And in the scene when Angie strips down to her underwear, could Leth pander to his audience more?) Before being sent to jail, Cassidy couldn’t convince anyone—not even a single person—of his supposed innocence? Cops investigating clearly related crimes don’t pick up on the connections? Bah. Unbelievable.
If you want a B-movie action-thriller, see Steven Soderbergh’s “Haywire,” which opened in theaters last weekend and deserves far more attention than it got from audiences. In contrast, “Man on a Ledge,” despite its setting high in the skies, is disappointingly low in quality.
