Review of Man on a Ledge (2012) by Dawdlingpoet — 22 Nov 2021

I found this movie to be somewhat confusing at first, in that there are various sub plots going on at the same time but perhaps not enough detail given to the viewer about some of them. We see things from the point of view of the jumper (Nick Cassidy), the police psychologist (who is rather down on her luck after a failed attempt to stop another jumper elsewhere, which the media reported heavily) and other police officers involved, plus there's the diamond heist, unbeknownst to those observing Nick on the, you guessed it, ledge. I didn't feel it was made clear why Nick was involved with the diamond heist (or maybe I hadn't paid close enough attention to the dialogue?), at least certainly not at first and I thought it was interesting to have a glimpse at the psychologists history or character but we don't really learn a great deal about her overall, which is a shame.

The pace of the movie varies, in that its perhaps a little slow to start with and there are some scenes of Nick and the psychologist that are maybe a bit long winded and don't really lead to us learning a great deal, they could perhaps be cut down a little bit but there's certainly a feeling of suspense present in general. I think its that inquisitiveness, wanting to find out more about the background and history of the characters, that kept my interest and I felt that the sense of suspense certainly heightened in the second half of the movie, as the police start to realise who their dealing with and things take an unexpected turn, with one or two plot twists present, which I certainly won't go in to, to prevent unnecessary spoilers.

I found it interesting to see how the police franticly scrabbled to put the pieces of the metaphorical puzzle together, to try to figure out what Nick was playing at, what he had been working on and planned, while he stayed quite level headed and uncooperative. It was perfectly watchable and I suppose its interesting how it highlighted the aspect of it being a live news item being reported on TV, showing crowds down on the street level watching and even shouting out encouraging him to jump, which is a bit disturbing, although if they all knew by then that he had criminal links then perhaps that may have something to do with it. I think the downside to this movie, as far as the plot is concerned, is the fact that it centres around someone with a criminal past and you (or I, certainly) couldn't help but wonder, in a sense, why we should be too concerned over such a persons fate. Of course, we realise there are multiple plotlines underway by the time the pace heats up and that adds suspense and intrigue but still, some of the characters are less than endearing (including another bad guy, not Nick), even the psychologist seems a bit almost selfish in a way, although I did root for her to prove her critics wrong and get a good outcome to this particular 'jumper'. I kept feeling throughout that I didn't have the full picture of (the full reasons behind) what exactly was going on, or maybe moreso precisely why but then without the curiosity to find out more then I suppose the movie would have no real appeal and the suspense would be shot.

There is certainly a plot twist or two present - the ending I felt was really quite corny/cheesy and I didn't feel was especially believable but one or two others I didn't mind so much. I suppose you could argue it isn't the sort of movie you watch and expect to be entirely believeable - I think this was made to be a suspenseful thriller and its certainly does pretty well to entertain the audience for the running time of approximately an hour and forty minutes, so I suppose from that side of things its decent enough.

To summarise, I do feel the plot is a bit confused but its still quite suspenseful and intriguing and is an easy enough watch. I feel this has good potential but maybe isn't quite as good as it could have been, in terms of delving even further into different characters backgrounds and providing more answers to the different questions that arise. This is certainly quite a 'Hollywood' type movie I feel but thats not necessarily a bad thing, its pretty good but not really especially great.