Review of Man on a Ledge (2012) by Thomas P — 10 Jun 2013

In New York City, Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) checks in to the Roosevelt Hotel under the false name of Walker, goes to his hotel room on the 21st floor, and climbs on the ledge, apparently ready to commit suicide. The crowd below calls the police, with Dante Marcus (Titus Welliver) controlling the crowd, while Jack Dougherty (Edward Burns) tries to talk with Nick. However, Nick will only speak to negotiator Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks), who is on a leave of absence, after failing to save a suicidal policeman. Lydia arrives at the hotel room and manages to acquire Nick's fingerprints from a cigarette they share. Dougherty has them analyzed and discovers that Nick is an ex-policeman, arrested for stealing a $40 million diamond from businessman David Englander (Ed Harris). Nick was given a 25-year sentence but escaped, after being allowed to attend his father's funeral. Nick, however, maintains his innocence and accuses Englander of framing him for the theft of the diamond, as Englander lost his fortune and was too proud to sell the diamond. Unknown to the police, Nick is merely distracting them while his brother, Joey (Jamie Bell), and Joey's girlfriend, Angie (Génesis Rodríguez), break into Englander's vault across the street, to steal the diamond and prove Nick's innocence...

"Man On A Ledge" is just a "all smoke and no fire" thriller in my eyes. The plot line is just silly, preposterous and hardly convincing. Non of the characters are interesting and you simply don´t care if Nick´s innocent or not. Elizabeth Banks is not convincing as the down and out Mercer and Burns has done a bit too many vague characters lately. What bothers me the most is the idea of making Joey and.

His girlfriend top notch professional cat burglars. How did that happen? What´s the backstory on that? Makes no sense in my book as we get no explanation what so ever about it. And the supersilly ending when Nick makes a leap from the building to catch Englander is just too much for me. Yes, "Man On A Ledge" is nicely shot specifically the Roosevelt Hotel sequences with real shots of the actors, but that doesn´t help this movie taking that leap to the ground. And Sam Worthington is simply not a leading actor. He has had his fair share of opportunities, but he has failed to convince me everytime. My biggest thrill with this movie was to see 45th Street in NYC (my hood last year when I was there) and the shots of the city plus the stunning Génesis Rodríguez.