Hey all. Capone in Chicago here.

Some ideas are so crazy they just might work. Welcome to VANTAGE POINT, a film that hasn't got a clue that the expression "less is more" even exits.

It exists solely because it believes that if you show us the same thing over and over (and over and over) and over and over again, we'll learn a little bit more about the world around us with each showing. The conceit of this star-studded work is that by giving us about 20 minutes of an earth-shattering event from the points of view of various key players in said events, an audience will be drawn slowly into the layered plot until a great mystery is revealed. And you know what? That's exactly what happens.

Normally I'd simply look at the cast of this kind of film and assume that there are simply too many good actors here for this to be any damn good, and I'd happily be proven wrong. This is in no way as sophisticated a film as the works of, say, Alejandro Gonzáez Iñárritu (BABEL; 21 GRAMS), but VANTAGE POINT's goal aren't quite as lofty. It wants to tell its tale of an assassination attempt on the President of the United States (William Hurt) in a unique way, and on that level, it succeeds.

Set in small city in Spain, the film takes place during the opening remarks of what is said to be a summit between the Western World and the Arab nations, where a treaty of some sort will be signed to end all terrorism (or something like that). As he's about to make his remarks in a crowded square surrounded by high buildings (a situation the Secret Service would never let happen, FYI), the president is shot and quickly whisked away in an ambulance moments before a bomb goes off in the square. We see this events first from the inside the remote control room of a CNN-like news organization, led by Sigourney Weaver. They have a reporter in the square who appears to die in the blast.

Then the film actually rewinds, and shows us essentially the same 20 minutes from the perspective of a Secret Service agent (Dennis Quaid), who has only just returned to duty after saving the president's life a year earlier, and the layers to this complicated plot begin to peel back. Does he spot the shooter? Does a Spanish suspect he tackles hold the key to the shooting? Does an American tourist (Forrest Whitaker) and his video camera hold the key to unlocking this mystery? Then the film rewinds again to show us Whitaker's perspective, then the suspect's, then a little girl and her mother, then the president's--until eight vantage points are revealed. It sounds redundant, but most of the time it's captivating.

The film doesn't quite find the means to spend its entire 90-minute length using this gimmick; it lasts about an hour before it simply gives in to more traditional storytelling. But while it's in play, the device is effective.

I won't argue with those who find the sheer number of coincidental run-ins a bit too convenient, especially toward the end of the film. But I defy you not to have some amount of fun watching VANTAGE POINT. Quaid is the sentimental favorite here, playing the emotionally and physically wounded soldier who still has PTSD flashes, but overcomes them to play a decaffeinated version of Jack Bauer. He's the only one in the film who acts and reacts as I believe a real person in his situation might. He's our ears and eyes, and he does a solid job pulling us through this sometimes implausible story.

VANTAGE POINT never stops moving. If it gave you even a minute's peace, you would probably start to think about it a little too hard and get really mad at it for jerking you around. But as it is constructed and executed, it's wheelbarrows full of dumb fun.

Capone