Man on a Ledge (2012)

Synopsis

Yes, it's about a man on a ledge, obviously they'res more than that. Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) is the man on the ledge. He's an ex-cop who was put in jail for stealing a diamond from David Englander (Ed Harris), but he escapes. While on the ledge he asks for Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks), a psychiatrist, to talk him down. Meanwhile a bank robbery is taking place by Joey Cassidy (Jamie Bell) and Angie (Genesis Rodriguez), Nick's brother and his girlfriend. It turns out that Nick being on the ledge is just a distraction from the bank robbery. Nick is doing all of this to prove his innocence.

My Verdict

Now I was extremely skeptical about this film. I didn't hear good things about this movie and with a title like that what would you expect. Everyone I talked to about it said that it was just about a man on a ledge and that's not interesting. I didn't remember seeing any previews for it so I went and found them. The one thought I had was why in the world did they show basically the entire movie in the preview?! I mean, they left out few details but mot many. 

I thought this movie was predictable. It's supposed to be this thriller but it wasn't even intense. Everything they did to draw intensity was so typical. I just didn't feel it. It wasn't 'edge of your seat' action to me. 

Let's talk about Mercer for a minute. She was the only female cop working on this case and she was the one that was in charge, well she was supposed to be in charge. All of the other cops (which were male) treated her with little to no respect. None of them thought she could do her job and it made me so angry. Of all people not to respect it has to be the only female there. 

One positive I did have was that this movie did a good job at making me root for the robbers. I was sitting there thinking "wait, am I rooting for the robbers? Aren't they the bad guys? Shouldn't I be rooting for the cops?" It kind of reminded me of "Dog Day Afternoon." 

I'm giving this movie a 5 out of 10. I was entertained but it was predictable and I can't stand it when I can predict things. Plus, it wasn't the greatest thing ever. 

Spoilers

I'm going to talk about some specific details so if you don't want to be spoiled don't read on. 

There were two things that weren't addressed in this movie. First why did David set Nick up? We find out he likes to use cops but we never find out why. We can only assume that it's because cops can cover up this crime but I want to know if he chose Nick specifically or randomly. I'm actually more interested in the backstory than the storyline of the movie. 

The second thing that wasn't addressed was why Nick's father faked his death. I can assume it was to help him escape and prove his innocence but we never found it out. And, why didn't anyone recognize him? I'm pretty sure when his son went to court he went with him, so why didn't any of these other cops recognize that the bellman was Nick's dad? Again, I want to know more about the backstory. Also, I knew the bellman was in one it all. When they interviewed him and he said Nick had "innocent eyes" I was like, something shady is going on. Then he brought Nick food and at that moment I knew he was involved. I didn't guess that he was the father but I wasn't too shocked when they told us. I just thought "oh that's his dad, really? He faked his death for you." 

Lastly I want to talk about the women in the movie. Of the two that weren't extras (and had more than on line) one of them was the sexy sidekick and the other got no respect from her colleagues. They didn't like her and didn't trust that she knew what she was doing. And, of course, she believed Nick but no one believed her until it was all said and done and there was physical proof he was innocent. Then they were like "oh good job" and "I'm proud to work with you." That just really made me angry. I know they have this female test (Bechdel test) and I think that this movie would fail it. I fact I looked it up and it did fail. 

I may be blowing this out of proportion but in the end they made it seem like Mercer made eyes at Nick and it seemed like they would get together. I just thought this was unnecessary. 

Well, that's what I thought of this movie. A 5/10. I won't be watching this again. Let me know what you thought about it in the comments below. 

IMDB page