‘Man on a Ledge’ Movie Review

‘Man on a Ledge’ Movie Review: There are some films which you can dislike the whole way though but still somehow drawn into the story, Man on a Ledge is definitely one of these rare creatures. It is the story of a ex convict/ex cop Nick Cassady (Sam Worthington) books in at the Roosevelt Hotel climbs out of the window ready to commit suicide, by he is just the distraction from the heist that is going on in the building opposite, this heist is to reclaim Cassady’s innocence by proving he did not steal a diamond. This seems such a simple plot that it would be very hard to get wrong, right? But somehow this feat is achieved by make Cassady’s role in as the distracter worthless, at no point did he need to be in the film at all, the brother (Joey, played by Jamie Bell) and his girlfriend (Angie played by Genesis Rodriguez) would have go the diamond without him... Also I swear heist films are meant to be realistic as possible, on their way to the safe they only encounter one security camera, and there is no CCTV in the next two corridors and not even in the safe room. At one point they find out there is a heat sensor up ahead that was not originally accounted for  but later on in the film Cassady tells them to set it off with hot pads...

     The acting was mime like, stereotypical and exaggerated in most cases except from Worthington who seemed out of place as the only actor who really acted! I felt the over sexualisation of Angie wore thin very quickly when it started to slow down the plot and would have hindered the heist.

      But somehow, though all this I was dragged into the story! I think is was by the interesting characters of Cassady, the negotiator Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks) and a friend of Cassady's Mike Ackerman (Anthony Mackie) who even though they were stereotypes, they still had funny, complex and interesting personalities. I found myself on the edge of my seat and nearly cheering at times! The Cinematography by Paul Cameron was excellently done and made you truly worried for Cassady and made me feel claustrophobic. I was really frustrated though out this film but by the end I had my fingers crossed for our heroes. 5.5 out of 10.