Man on a Ledge

Released in 1951, Fourteen Hours is a tense, straightforward story of a man standing on a ledge high above the streets of New York City and the consequences as crowds watch below and the police try to save the man. Fast forward some 60 years, and we've got 2012's Man on a Ledge, a movie that uses the same premise, adds a whole lot of unbelievable background before degenerating into a stupid action movie. Yeah for ridiculous!

Just days since escaping from prison and a 25-year sentence, ex-cop Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) rents a room in the Roosevelt Hotel and promptly steps out onto the window ledge some 20 stories up. He's almost immediately spotted by someone on the streets below and within minutes there are police and fire department on-site to talk him down. Cassidy requests a specific negotiator, Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks), and the stand-off begins. Questions immediately arise though. What are Cassidy's intentions? What exactly is his end-game? Across the street, Nick's brother, Joey (Jamie Bell), and his girlfriend, Angie (Genesis Rodriguez), are using the distraction to break into a heavily guarded vault owned by real estate mogul, David Englander (Ed Harris). How does it all tie together though?

What's good about this movie? For starters, the premise alone for its originality. It has tones of the original Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, and that's never a bad thing. A media circus and how people respond? It's hard to mess that up. From high up in the Roosevelt Hotel, Worthington's Cassidy looks down on somewhat organized chaos. Crowds gather, on-lookers taking pictures and filming video, some willing him to jump, others hoping he steps back into the hotel room. From director Asger Leth, those are the parts that work. A guy pushed to his limits deciding to jump or not to jump? The most basic of premises that does add a layer of tension, questioning and worry.

What's bad about this movie? Basically everything added on top of that story. There's just too much going on that tries to top off the premise of a man standing on a ledge about to jump. SPOILERS STOP READING SPOILERS Cassidy was set-up as a dupe in a "robbery" gone wrong, his goal a multi-million dollar diamond belonging to who? Harris' Englander of course. Cassidy obviously claims his innocence and is trying to do so in the most ridiculous, convoluted way possible. His brother and his girlfriend -- amateur thieves apparently? -- break into Harris' building and manage to break into his supposedly impregnable vault. END OF SPOILERS It's just all too much, ruining an at least somewhat interesting premise. Unfortunately, it gets dumber as the story goes along.

I like Sam Worthington. I do, but his selection in movies could use with some brushing up. He just isn't given much to do -- literally standing on a ledge much of the movie -- and leaves little impression. As the negotiator coming off a negotiation gone horrifically wrong, Banks is fairly solid as Lydia Mercer. Bell and Rodriguez are painful to watch, a young couple fighting like a bunch of teenagers. Oh, and they're robbing an impregnable vault with heavy security at the same time. Rodriguez is not a strong actress, and seems to be there to wear a low-cut shirt that shows off her cleavage in a red push-up bra. Not a complaint, just an observation. Harris is wasted as he sneers through his part with Anthony Mackie playing Cassidy's former partner, Edward Burns as Mercer's fellow negotiator, Titus Welliver as the on-site police commander, and Kyra Sedgwick as a story-seeking field reporter.

Even through all the holes in the storyline, I still had hope for this story as it developed. But by the end of the story -- and pardon the pun -- but this one falls off the cliff. What was mildly believable becomes ridiculous quickly. People start jumping from building to building and ledge to ledge, chasing from kitchen to stairwells and hotel rooms, and then BAM! Twists galore! None of it really comes together though, leaving the premise a somewhat enjoyable but ultimately disappointing end result. Too bad.

Man on a Ledge <---trailer (2012): **/****

Confidence

For every actor/actress you swear you see in every other movie ever released, there are those who are a little bit more picky with the roles they take.  For today, that's Edward Burns, star of a major movie like Saving Private Ryan but typically in smaller, independent movies that barely make a dent in theaters. Limiting his roles on-screen in front of the camera, Burns also writes, produces and directs behind the camera.  So with the few movies he has done, you've got to take advantage when the opportunity presents itself, like 2003's Confidence.

The timing of watching movies just seems too spooky sometimes.  Two days ago I reviewed 1973's Charley Varrick, a story about a small-time crook who knocks off a bank holding mob money. What's Confidence about? A team of con men who pull a successful con only to find out their mark is giving them mob money. Still, that's the only huge similarity in this overlooked, very stylish, sometimes needlessly confusing con job flick.  It bombed in theaters upon its release in 2003 and has receded into that sea of box office bombs.  It isn't anything different from so many other similar movies, but with an impressive cast from top to bottom it's hard to let this one slip by.

New in Los Angeles, Jake Vig (Burns) and his team of con men, Gordo (Paul Giamatti) and Miles (Brian Van Holt), run a successful con on a mid-level businessman that nets them $150,000. Bad news though, the money is linked to a crime boss known as the King (Dustin Hoffman), and the man wants his money back.  Instead of leaving town and going on the run, Jake and his crew decide to go to work for King, pulling another con job on a target of his choosing. Their target is a crooked banker with money laundering ties who has a past with King, but now Jake must figure some way to get to the impossible target. With a beautiful pickpocket, Lily (Rachel Weisz), joining his crew, he goes to work.  But when things start to come together, Jake finds out that an old nemesis of his, government agent Gunther Butan (Andy Garcia), is closing in on the team.

Directed by James Foley, Confidence is nothing new when it comes to the last con, the last heist, the specialists working together genre. It's well-made, polished, and stylish to a point.  The problem is that it's very aware that it's polished and stylish in its execution.  It tries too hard to be a cool movie at times. The script is well-written -- even if there are some unexplained plot elements -- but relies heavily on the use of the word 'fuck' just for the sake of saying it.  None of this is to say I disliked the movie, but instead it's just something I noticed.  The best examples of successful movies like this just are cool. They don't need to try, and at times this is that movie that so desperately wants you to like it that it gets caught up in itself instead of just being a good movie.

As is so often the case with movies with some major flaws, a solid cast can be a saving grace even if the materiel isn't up to par. Burns is a surprisingly good choice to play Jake Vig, this very smooth, quick on his feet con man who can pull a job off because he's 20 steps ahead of you. He can lie, manipulate and steal like nobody's business, and you won't even know you've been had when he's done. Weisz is one of the best actresses around in Hollywood today so it's fun to see her do more of a commercial, mainstream role. Her looks never hurt either as she pulls off a great femme fatale part that film noirs would have been jealous of. Garcia is criminally underused but does his best with an underwritten part while Giamatti and Van Holt look to be having a lot of fun in parts that don't require them to do much. Also worth mentioning are Donal Logue and Luis Guzman as two LAPD cops on Jake's payroll, John Carroll Lynch as the new con's mark/target, Franky G as Lupus, King's henchman, and Morris Chestnut as a gunman looking for answers.

From the time he burst into movies in the late 1960s, Dustin Hoffman was a star. Now in 2011 or here in 2003, he's an icon, one of the great actors in the history of Hollywood.  Here as the King, he's playing a role that is mostly a glorified cameo that requires him to show up for three or four scenes all told.  He gets to ham it up playing this crime boss who we're not quite sure what he's involved in.  Hoffman plays so perfectly off of co-stars like Burns and Weisz that he raises their scenes up a level on his own.  His King is a frantic, hyper and ADHD, and a lot of fun to watch.

It is a movie about a con so you know a twist is coming in the finale. This is where the movie tries too hard attempting to pull the wool over the audience's eyes.  It's revealed so quickly all the twists and turns are wasted. The best reveals are the ones that lay out every little thing so we know what happened too.  Confidence gets so wrapped up in trying to trick us too that even after going back and watching the ending again, I'm still not sure exactly what was going on. The movie itself is entertaining and never boring.  But at just 97 minutes, there is way too much going on. Nothing is allowed to breathe and develop, meaning actors like Garcia and Giamatti are wasted in parts where they'd usually shine.  It is still a solid movie that's worth a watch, but don't expect a classic.

Confidence <---trailer (2003): ***/****