Man on a Ledge begins with a good premise, but quickly devolves into an overindulgent mess.

Film Review

Film: Man on a Ledge

Starring: Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell, Ed Harris

Director: Asger Leth

Studio: Summit Entertainment

Released: January 27, 2012

Reviewed by Lindsay Marshall (Toronto)

For a film with such a simple title, Man on a Ledge quickly becomes trite and convoluted, despite an intriguing basic premise. While the story has some potential, it becomes a total wash of clichéd New Yorkers, robbers and good cop/bad cop, trying to grind some sense into a lackluster script.

Sam Worthington plays Nick Cassidy, an ex-police officer, who was collared and put in jail after allegedly stealing a $40 million diamond (because they couldn’t think of anything possibly more unoriginal for Cassidy to steal), from entrepreneur David Englander, played by Ed Harris, in full Donald Trump-impersonation mode, right down to the hair (this is not a compliment). Cassidy claims that he is innocent, and asserts that he was framed by Englander to collect the insurance.

In an unbearable meandering and exploration of events, we learn that Cassidy has been in jail, and managed to escape when attending his father’s funeral (and surely doing his family name extremely proud at the same time). From there, he logically did what was next, and that was climbing out on a ledge on the 21^st floor of the famous Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, immediately attracting the attention of hundreds of jaded New Yorkers.  The chant, “Jump! Jump!” gets tossed around a lot, women swoon, people wave, and you begin to wonder if all potential suicide-jumpers in NYC are treated as such. Emergency crews quickly descend upon the area, but as Cassidy preens upon his precipice, it becomes obvious that he’s up to something.

Unbeknownst to the police, Cassidy’s brother Joey (Jamie Bell), and his girlfriend accomplice Angie (Genesis Rodriguez), are using Nick’s scene across the street as a diversion while they retrieve the real diamond – unstolen, as Nick continually claims – from Englander’s state of the art vault. This means they have to jump through some lofty hoops, as they drill through walls, descend elevator shafts and use some plain tomfoolery to get to their final goal – a humongous steel vault that appears as impenetrable as Alcatraz.

It’s unfortunate that the film quickly dissolves into idiocy, because the basis and storyline did hold some promise. The diversion of Nick atop a skyscraper, threatening to leap at any time, would likely suit the perfect crime of robbing a high-security vault, for an item of such unimaginable value. But it becomes hard to believe that the rag-tag team of Joey and his stereotypical hispanic girlfriend Angie would be able to open a tuna can, much less a vault, belonging to a multi-millionaire. Angie’s breasts are her main tool of both seduction and espionage, in the Mission: Impossible for dummies break-in attempt.

Worthington carries the majority of the film, as he vacillates between growling indignation, and unemotional pleading to convince everyone he’s innocent, while running through a number of questionable accents. It’s not exactly clear where the Aussie’s character is meant to be from. A host of other actors come into the overdone fray, all likely wishing they’d chosen a different script. Elizabeth Banks plays negotiator Lydia Mercer, whom Cassidy demands to see, and we sympathize with her momentarily as we learn that her last job, talking a cop off the Brooklyn Bridge, didn’t end well. Edward Burns plays an arrogant detective, whose sole use is mostly to throw out some witty puns, such as “Bon appétit!” when Cassidy is brought his “last meal.” His surly front is the most interesting or necessary thing to know about his character, and most of the others in the film.

Kyra Sedgwick is one of the few who seems to be in on the joke of the laughable script, written by Pablo F. Fenjves. She plays tough-as-nails New York City news reporter Suzy Morales, reporting live from the scene. She shoves her microphones into people’s faces with enthusiasm, and gives the camera puppy-dog eyes while both condemning and supporting Cassidy.

You name the heist-film cliché, and it’s in this film and used half-to-death. The sexy accomplice? Check. Tons of gadgets? Check. The uneasy question about how on earth Joey Cassidy obtains said sexy accomplice and slew of expensive gadgets? Check. The good cop/bad cop routine that boils beneath the surface is explored only in a burst of admissions from various sources, so by the end, you’re still not entirely sure why this man is on the ledge. The tagline for the film is, “You can only push an innocent man so far.” Someone forgot to tell these people that you can only make an audience believe so much, before you descend into unintelligible froth.

Man on a Ledge begins with a good premise, but quickly devolves into an overindulgent mess, that the audience has great difficulty identifying with. What could have been an exciting, edge-of-your-seat thriller instead makes you wish that Worthington would jump off the ledge already, and put us all out of our misery. It could have been a much shorter film if he had, and many of these actors could have happily wiped this one off their slates.  

Written by :

Lindsay Marshall