Man on a Ledge (2012)

Directed by: Asger Leth | 102 minutes | thriller, crime | Actors: Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell, Edward Burns, Ed Harris, Kyra Sedgwick, William Sadler, Genesis Rodriguez, Anthony Mackie, Afton Williamson, Jonah Falcon, Pooja Kumar

There you are, on a narrow ledge tens of meters above Manhattan, with nothing under your feet but a thin ledge a few centimeters wide that keeps you from free fall. Hundreds of people on the ground wait in suspense for what is to come. The adrenaline rushes through your body. Do you jump or do you not jump? It is this very impressive setting that forms the basis of the story of ‘Man on a Ledge’.

The man standing on the ledge is Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington), a former police officer. After being wrongly convicted of a diamond heist, Nick ends up in prison for 25 years. After two years, he manages to escape on a supervised leave and now the fugitive Nick’s sole aim is to prove his innocence to the rest of the world. To this end, he tries to gain the trust of Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks), the woman in charge of the rescue operation to get Nick off the ledge. While Nick is on the brink of collapse, his brother Joey (Jamie Bell) and his girlfriend Angie (Genesis Rodriguez) are busy robbing the vault where the diamond that Nick is said to have stolen and destroyed.

Man on a Ledge is the debut film from director Asger Leth. Not that he is a rookie: Asger Leth has a wealth of experience in the field of documentaries, but this is his first feature film in which he is in control. Although the setting of the film is very intriguing as mentioned, this is unfortunately the only thing that is really impressive about the film. Because even though the story is quite interesting, there are too many sloppiness in the film to really lead to a spectacle. In particular, the robbery that Joey and Angie commit (a bit in ‘Mission: Impossible’ style) is not worked out too well. The way they bypass security is very simple (pasting a simple photo in front of a security camera to make sure it doesn’t see you isn’t exactly believable). Furthermore, the dialogues between Joey and Angie are disturbing. Instead of focusing on the robbery, the two do nothing but constantly argue about their relationship when a couple of teenagers argue. They keep doing this for so long that it gets on your nerves and they are also completely unnecessary conversations. Unfortunately, the tension in the further course of the film is barely present. Where the makers proudly make it appear that the film leaves the viewer in a constant state of suspense whether Nick is going to jump or not, this is actually hardly the case. You know very quickly that his action is nothing more than a diversion so that Joey and Angie can quietly do their job.

Still, ‘Man on a Ledge’ is not a bad movie. The conversations between Nick and Lydia on the ledge are well worth the effort, with Lydia sitting comfortably in the window and Nick standing on the edge. In addition, the choice to have a large part of the story play on a narrow ledge is certainly interesting. It is mainly these scenes on the ledge of the hotel that make ‘Man on a Ledge’ a must. At the end of the film there is still some action, but it is of a not too high level, just like the entire film is of a not too high level. The film leaves you with the feeling that more could have been taken out of the story and setting. Unfortunately, it now remains with good intentions.