Man on a ledge
Year of release : 2012
Run time : 1h42min
Genre : Thriller / Crime
Cast : Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Genesis Rodriguez, Jamie Bell, Ed Harris, Edward Burns, Kyra Sedgwick
Walker checks into the hotel room he rented, eats by himself, writes a note, then goes out the window, standing on the ledge. A woman sees him, and starts screaming.
We see him one month earlier, in the Sing Sing Correctional Facility, as mister Cassidy, when he’s told his appeal has been denied, and has to face a 25 year sentence for allegedly stealing a diamond.
His friend, who’s also a cop, comes to see him, and tells him he is getting married, and that Cassidy’s father is dying, and he’s gonna ask the prison to let them see him.
Cassidy is allowed to attend his father’s funeral, and he starts fighting with his brother. While the two cops watching him try to break up their fight, he takes one of their guns, and manages to escape.
In the present, detective Jack Dougherty goes to the 21st floor to talk to Walker/Cassidy, but he’s not interested, while the hostage negotiator, detective Marcus, controls the crowd and closes the streets.
In the end, Cassidy says he wants detective Lydia Anderson in 30 minutes or he’ll jump.
Although he doesn’t want to, Dougherty calls Lydia who’s sleeping, because it’s her day off.
When Lydia comes to see him, he tells her everything changes today and that he’s ready to die. When she asks why did he asked for her personally, he answers, because she’s famous for not being able to make her jumper, who was a cop, change his mind.
Because Jack is berating her, Lydia is asking him and his men to clear the room. When she lets them back in, she does under one condition, to back her up. As he agrees, he tells her they can’t find his fingerprints, and they don’t know who he is. So Lydia is offering him a cigarette.
At that point, the brother Cassidy fought with at the funeral shows up with his girlfriend in the building across the street. Cassidy wears an earpiece with a microphone he can talk to him through. Cassidy tells Lydia she’s gonna have to make a choice regarding him.
His brother, Joey, and Joey’s girlfriend, Angie, prepare to b0mb their way into a building they climbed, and Nick Cassidy pretends to jump, getting all focus on him.
After the b0mbing, Nick accepts the cigarette, and tells Lydia he chose her because she’s a lot like him, and never gives up on people.
Joey and Angie seem to try to get into a maximum security building, as it has codes they enter and many cameras they have to trick.
As he talks to Lydia, a news helicopter flies very close to Nick to the point, due to the wind the main rotor was making, he almost fell off.
Nick’s cop friend, is doing his own investigation on him, as he’s trying to find out where he is and what he’s doing.
The police finally find out who he is, and realize the jewelry exchange building is right across the street, and Nick was imprisoned for stealing the 40 million dollars diamond from the owner of the building he’s in. His note said “ I will leave this world how I entered it, innocent” and Lydia realizes Nick wants people to think he didn’t steal the diamond.
Nick is asking Lydia to trust him, as he’s trying to prove his innocence, while his brother is trying to break into the safe of the man who accused him of stealing the diamond to save himself from bankruptcy, as he thinks the diamond is still in his possession.
I personally enjoyed the movie, and liked the leading characters, from Nick and Lydia, to Joey and Angie. I really liked Joey and Angie, liked their back and forth, and found them at times funny.
I think Nick might see in Lydia a bit of him, and thinks this could be an opportunity for the both of them to clear their names.
I liked the fact Nick and his family were united, although it doesn’t seem that way in the beginning.
The acting was good.
The soundtrack was good.
The visual effects, consisting of Nick on the ledge, the building and the crowd, were good.
The movie made 47.6 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 42 million dollars, being a flop.
The movie holds a 6.6 rating on IMDB, a 52 popcorn meter on Rotten Tomatoes, and 6.3 user score on Metacritic. Cinema Score audiences graded the movie a B+.
Rating : Worth a watch !