Man on a Ledge (12A)

Nic Cassidy (Sam Worthington of Clash of the Titans and Avatar fame) is an ex-cop, disgraced and facing a life behind bars. When allowed out for his father’s funeral, he ends up fighting with his estranged brother  Joey (Jamie Bell) and manages to flee custody in a way that must have had Harrison Ford reaching for his Fugitive DVD and a copyright lawyer.  A short time later (and with the police in hottish pursuit) he takes a room in the upper levels of a downtown New York hotel and, last supper finished, leaves the room by... the window. Rubber-necking tourists soon spot him balanced on the ledge above and the police are called. But Cassidy only wants to talk to one of them, disgruntled negotiator Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks) and he tells her he wants her to prove his innocence. If she won’t help him, he’s going to take a short-trip to a dirt-nap on the concrete below.  What Mercer and the police don’t know is that something even bigger is going on and that Cassidy has no intention of decorating the pavement or surrendering before he’s ready. All he needs is for everyone to keep their eyes on him...

A little like the Colin Farrell / Kiefer Sutherland  thriller Phone Booth, Man on a Ledge attempts to make an exciting thriller from a literal title and a singular location. Unlike the former, the latter doesn’t quite have the staying power or conviction to keep its hero tethered to the title and instead uses Worthington as the character around which a larger plot pivots, eventually losing the threat of the ledge altogether.

The main problem here is not that Man on a Ledge isn’t a diverting enough time-filler – this is perfectly acceptable Hollywood hokum – it’s simply that the initial premise is a potentially dynamic one ...there’s a man on a ledge… WHY? Is he going to jump? WHY?’ However the story that ultimately spins out from it turns out to be wholly average and as pedestrian as the street far below. Even from a few minutes out on that ledge we already know that Worthington has no real intention of jumping, that his role is wholly a diversion. This means all the genuine tension we’re supposed to feel from the outset is now gone and that rather nifty perspective-driven poster... irrelevant. Less than a third of the way into the piece and what could be a vertigo-inducing nail-biter becomes a familiar and unlikely caper movie with Worthington as showrunner Joey, in turn, is busy being the light relief, almost managing an American accent and hanging out with a woman, Angie,  who is so far out of his league she might as well have been the one up on the ledge. Angie is played by the unlikely-named Genesis Rodriguez and is given a fun sassy character, but one who is standing up for female empowerment largely by grumbling, snarking and wearing a tight top.

Ed Harris is the snarling villain of the piece and the target of revenge for the brothers and manages to get through the entire movie merely  by imitating The Simpsons' malevolent Mr Burns (truly, it’s uncanny). Additionally,  Kyra Sedgewick, a talented actress, appears as an opportunistic TV reporter, filing her story from the streets below. It is ultimately a completely pointless character, a 2D cliche that adds nothing but a few extra minutes of running time.

All said and done, Man on a Ledge is not awful, but like Cassidy on that ledge, it neither soars nor plummets, just meanders along not actually getting anywhere and trying not to look down.  It’s just a formulaic thriller in which you know all the moves before they happen and which spreads itself too thin.  Man on a Ledge doesn’t produce a cinema-goer on the edge of their seat.  It’s a distracting thriller about distraction but  alsomissed opportunity that induces frustration rather than vertigo. 

Man on a Ledge is released by Entertainment One and is in cinemas now.

7/10