January 27, 2012 at 5:19 pmI always love your reviews and the way you think and talk about movies--but its a special treat to unexpectedly see you use a word like ishkabibble. Thanks Stephanie, for so much pleasure and delight over the years.
But either in spite of or because of its whimsically convincing quality,Man on a Ledgeis reasonably fun to watch along the way. Leth and Fenjves do take a few spiritual missteps: At one point Spencer tells Cassidy that the assembled crowd on the ground wants nothing more than to see his brains go splat on the pavement. And sure enough, we see the masses taking great glee in watching Cassidy quiver on his perch they exhort him to jump as if they were cheering for an athlete. Thats a genuinely sour note, and a lse one: While its true there could always one or two nutters lurking about, 99.9 per cent of New Yorkers wouldnotwant to see a man leap to his death, and probably 99 per cent would do whatever they could to dissuade him. (We may be crazy to live in a place where the monthly rent for a small studio equals the GNP of Liechtenstein, but were not animals.)
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Its so hard to find a reasonably enjoyable thriller these days that anything with a marginally intriguing premise and fewer than 10 plot holes has come to seem like a minor miracle. Man on a Ledge &133;Movieline rating: 6.5READ MORE
And Banks is, as always, a pleasure to watch, although the movie doesnt make any use of her bulous screwball streak. Instead, she gets to play a reasonable character stuck in an unreasonable situation. Even so, theres always a gleam in her eye that suggests she cant believe shes gotten herself into such a mess. And its the gleam in her eye that gets her out, allowing her a great moment of triumph over her ist, asshole bosses.Man on a Ledgeis on shaky footing when it comes to plausibility. But it believes so strongly in its own preposterousness that it almost almost gets us to make the leap.
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Still, Leth appears to have had a good time with some of the movies details: Kyra Sedgwick appears, in a sharp mini-role, as an on-the-scene TV reporter who offers the play-by-play on this potential suicide with so much crisp efficiency, its if shed been rehearsing it for days. (NowthatsNew York.) Worthington is perhaps more likable, and more watchable, than hes ever been. Even if his Australian accent rubs through here and there, its still easy enough to buy him as a man with both a conscience and a rugged sense of justice.
Somewhere in there, Jamie Bell and Genesis Rodriguez sneak around as part of a carefully orchestrated plan to well, to tell you too much would give the game away, but it involves a giant honker of a diamond that Cassidy supposedly stole from a loathsome Donald Trump type (played with great relish by Ed Harris, who usually gets to portray only principled guys). Meanwhile, Cassidys close friend and former partner (played by Anthony Mackie), [adult school] Can Schools Preserve Their History, Even After State Takeover? football yearbooks (0) 2011-12-27 14:36:53 frets about Cassidys te.
TV Ratings: CBS rules Friday night with &039;A Gifted Man,&039; &039;CSI: NY&039; and &039;Blue Bloods&039;
At the vhair playery least, Leth allows us to bask in the illusion that the movies rfetched conclusion actually might make sense until you start taking it apart, piece by piece, and realize that its all utter ishkabibble. Characters are savvy enough to procure ke IDs for themselves, the better to pull off all sorts of nerious activities yet they put important documents in storage spaces rented under their real names. A random homeless man-slash-crazy person but of course! - commits a heroic deed that changes Cassidys te. The script, by Pablo F. Fenjves, is audacious about asking us to believe in every wiggly-waggly twist and turn. Its so audacious that, by the end, you cant believe you bought any of it. Punkd!
Its so hard to find a reasonably enjoyable thriller these days that anything with a marginally intriguing premise and fewer than 10 plot holes has come to seem like a minor miracle.Man on a Ledgemight have been that kind of modest miracle: Sam Worthington stars as Nick Cassidy, a pissed-off ex-cop whos been convicted of a crime he didnt commit. Somehow and the whole ofMan on a Ledgedeals with the whys and wherefores of that somehow he springs himself from Sing Sing, suits up in some phenomenally nice-looking threads, and checks himself (under an assumed name) into a room on one of the upper floors of a midtown Manhattan luxury hotel. After a room-service breakst of champagne, lobster and French fries, he creeps out onto the ledge and greets the cops who respond to the call with some very specific demands.
Grey&039;s Anatomy First Look: Watch the First 11 Minutes of Next Week&039;s Alt-Reality Episode Now
REVIEW: Super-Preposterous, hair play,Chief among those requirements is that hell speak with only one NYPD psychologist, Lydia Spencer (Elizabeth Banks). Spencer has been having a rough time on the force of late: When we first see her, shes barely able to rouse herself from her bed shes having some sort of killer morning after, and her messy tumble of blond hair makes her look like a discarded Barbie doll. Cassidy, of course, has specific reasons for wanting to speak with Spencer. And even if he makes her day tougher than it was at the beginning, its clear from the way her superiors order her around they include a sarcastic nutbuster played by Edward Burns and Titus Welliver as an overly caricatured, gum-chewing NYPD bossy-pants that they dont take her as seriously as Cassidy does.
Because Cassidy is, after all, clinging somewhat daintily to a narrow strip of stone some 20 stories off the ground: This is a guy who doeREVIEW: Super-Preposterous, hair playsnt care if he lives or dies as long as he ultimately proves his innocence. And as you watchMan on a Ledge, youll have good cause to wonder why hes going to such extremes. Director Asger Leth (son of Danish filmmaker Jørgen Leth and also the director of the 2006 documentaryGhosts of Cité Soleil, about gang ware in the slums of Haiti) pulls off a minor feat by us think its worth our while to care. I kept watchingMan on a Ledge and scrutinizing Sam Worthingtons half-impassive, half-handsome ce and wondering, How is this all going to tie together? Or is it going to tie together at all?
