Review of The Ledge (2011) by Thomas W — 29 Feb 2012

I cannot stand movies that believe themselves to be highly important ... and The Ledge is one of them. It is yet another Hollywood film that decides to take a swipe at religion (an evangelical character played by Liv Tyler has an affair!) by casting it in a negative light with only one dimension.

The Ledge is about a young man named Gavin (Charlie Hunnam - "Sons of Anarchy", Nicholas Nickelby) who's affair with his neighbor Joe's (Patrick Wilson - Phantom of the Opera, Watchmen) wife leads him to the "ledge" of a building where he is given an hour to decide whether to jump or not -- because him jumping would solve everything (?) according to Joe and make it-all-as-if the affair never happened! The film over-simplifies while making everything else too complex and convaluted.

The film wants Gavin (and the audience) to ponder the absurd idea of there not being an afterlife (I guess he's supposed to be able to jump if he had faith?!?) which would make his jumping a waste on many different levels.

The Ledge is one of those films that thinks it is smart because it raises a moral question; but when a film is so narrow-minded to begin with (giving Gavin and its audience only one unbelievable option) and it is so poorly-constructed the filmmakers don't realize that it cannot even be taken seriously.

Its promotional material states that the film "will leave you gasping until the final frame" ... which couldn't be further from the truth as I believe those were sighs of disdain and disgust as the film inched onward.

It is terrible; but had he just jumped at the BEGINNING ...