Man on a Ledge

When I saw the preview for this movie, I was intrigued. For the first act of “Man on a Ledge”, it was okay but then problems began to surface. The film is supposed to be in the thriller genre and as the second act of the story unfolded, all that changed. It seemed to become a comedy-crime caper once the robbery got underway. I felt that ruined the entire experience. Also, the film did not establish the characters well enough for us to emotionally connect with them. Finally, “Man on a Ledge” was predicable at certain times.

The movie did start out like a thriller normally would. You had Nick making his way out on the ledge of the hotel from some unknown reason and you had the flashback to his escape from jail. Even though I had a hunch that Joey was in on the escape plan, I wasn’t sure and that was because of how well the escape scene was played out. The big question I have then is why all the silliness during the robbery. As I watched Joey and Angie, it seemed way too easy for two people like them to get as far as they did. They didn’t make the break in very thrilling. They just made us laugh most of the time, a little too much for the genre that was established at the start of the film. It just felt too phony of a heist and all the thrilling elements of the movie, such as whether Ackerman is guilty, suffered. “Man on a Ledge” needed a lot more story twists and surprises. The ones that were present felt very cliché such as the diamond missing from the vault. Instead, I would have had Joey and Angie making their way out of the building with the diamond only to examine it and find it to be a fake. The revelation concerning the concierge at the end of the movie was also a little obvious but it didn’t have to be. The director or screenwriter should have made things a little subtler concerning that surprise as we approached the climax. It was hard to emotionally connect with these characters because of how they are introduced in the movie. I would have loved to see a flashback of Nick & Ackerman when they were partners and how Nick was put in jail. I also wanted to see Mercer’s failure on the Brooklyn Bridge. Because of this lack of subtext, the characters did not seem real enough for me. One story problem I had was how did Nick and his family know that Englander would take the diamond from his safe. That was a big gamble. The portrayal of New York City was also incorrect. Sure I have not been there but it feels like “Man on a Ledge” is set in NYC pre-2001 as opposed to the current year. I don’t think New Yorkers today would be hoping for anyone to jump off a building. The scene where the crowd goes after the money that Nick has thrown also seems unbelievable in that they get past the police so easily. A good note about this movie is Ed Harris’ acting. He was quite the villain in this movie. The ending felt quite anti-climatic. It would have been a better movie if at the end, it looks as though Nick and the others have lost where in fact they had control over everything. The ending needed a bigger surprise. The climax was not enough to satisfy my need for resolution. We don’t even see Englander after the “climatic” moment. Finally, the proposal was pretty silly of a way to end the movie.

The only good things about “Man on a Ledge” were Ed Harris and your desire to know how everything was going to turn out in the end. The film was predictable in places and the film had a lack of emotional backing. The movie went from thrilling at the start to comedic and that never works. Movies like “Tower Heist” and “Ocean’s Eleven” maintained their tone and feeling throughout the running time of the film. This movie did not.

2 Stars