MAN ON A LEDGE (Asger Leth). 101 minutes. Opens Friday (January 27). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NN
I will say this for Man On A Ledge: most of the movie is indeed about a man on a ledge.
The man is Nick Cassidy, a generic ex-cop played with clenched intensity by Avatar’s Sam Worthington. The ledge is ostensibly on a high floor of Manhattan’s Roosevelt Hotel, although it’s often (and obviously) on a soundstage instead.
The man is up there, he says, because he has been framed for a robbery and this is the best way to clear his name. But there’s obviously more to his plan he’s requested a specific ledge negotiator (Elizabeth Banks), and his eyes keep darting to the roof of a nearby building where his brother (Jamie Bell) and his brother’s hot girlfriend (Genesis Rodriguez) are doing something suspicious under a tarp.
So, yeah, this is actually a heist movie, the mechanics of which are so elaborate that the characters have to remind each other they’ve been planning it for a solid year. Otherwise, we might think the whole thing was just made up by a screenwriter with no regard for physics, human stamina or the limits of audience credulity.
It’s as dumb as a box of rocks, but it’s the cheesy, shameless kind of dumb where everyone seems to be having a good time – except maybe Worthington, who still hasn’t learned how to enjoy himself in an action role. But he totally nails the physicality of a man on a ledge.
