Man on a Ledge

5 / 10

2012.  Directed by Asger Leth.  Starring Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell and Ed Harris.

Sam Worthington checks into an upper floor New York hotel room, has some lunch, then climbs out of the window and stands on the narrow ledge, apparently ready to jump.  Panic ensues below, the police are called and Elizabeth Banks is sent to his hotel room to talk him down.  Worthington realises he has somehow ended up trying to make a serious film with Elizabeth Banks as the female lead, and jumps.

No, not really.  But can you imagine?  Lol.

What actually happens is that, over the next mercifully short hour and a half, we’re drip fed pieces of a big conspiracy that involves Worthington being falsely accused of a major diamond heist.  He’s on the ledge to prove his innocence.  Presumably because New York lawyers are far too expensive.

So that’s basically the guts of it.  We get a few crossovers to Sam’s brother and his hot Mexican girlfriend who are in on the plan to clear Sam’s name.  But apart from that, it’s pretty much one continuous shot of the man on the ledge and the police scrambling around him.

Aside from the fact that the plot is utterly ludicrous, this isn’t an utterly awful movie.  There are some flashes of excitement and Worthington, despite his appalling haircut, performs well enough.

But Man On A Ledge is heavily constrained by the limited setting and plot space.   They have to resort to shallow gimmicks to pad out the movie – lame humour, a hot scantily clad girl, and weak non-essential scenes like Sam throwing cash off the ledge.

Remember in 2002, when Colin Farrell got stuck in a phone booth and SWAT had to call in Forest Whitaker to get him out?  Man On A Ledge is deliberately working the same kind of small set angle.  What made Phone Booth so much better was that there was more mystery, more tension, and Kiefer Sutherland was floating around the sidelines with a sniper rifle.

If Kiefer Sutherland had shot Worthington halfway through this film, it might have been worth watching.  If he’d popped Elizabeth Banks, we’d be looking at an Oscar.

About Willy

Willy cried in Little Miss Sunshine and only pretends to like the Godfather movies. He celebrates Jackie Chan's birthday every year.
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