review by Adam Cook Patron
Man on a Ledge 2012
Watched Jul 19, 2012
Adam Cook’s review:
This should have been a high concept and taut thriller yet despite having the correct constituent parts (the novel man on a ledge hook, the character relationship between jumper and psychologist and an audacious heist) it feels distinctly thrill-free.
One key problem is having an actor of Worthington’s limited range expected to do a lot of the character work. Despite a positive start to his career in Australia since moving to America he has really struggled and I find it impossible to warm to him. For this reason it is hard to care about his personal quest to clear his name. The heist element, whilst linked to the man on the ledge story, feels too separate and involving characters that are never developed beyond their family relationship. As the film progresses, and despite an elaborate chase, rather than increasing the tension and excitement it all slowly fizzles out.
This film should have felt fresh and new and instead it felt like I had seen in before. I agree that Sam is hard to warm up to in almost all of the roles that he has been in, but Ed Harris was good as almost always as the villain.
To be honest I thought Harris looked really ill; anybody know if he is in fact sick or if it is just age?
Yeah, I pointed that out in my review as well. I felt he looked like the old guy from Poltergeist 2. As far as I know, nothing has been confirmed. He apparently suffered from severe food poisoning during The Way Back, but this looks much, much worse.
He looked a lot fitter in The Way Back. Maybe he went on a diet or something. I'm sure if he was ill we would have heard by now.
He looked fine in Game Change.