Critic on the edge

Every good story requires a certain amount of suspension of disbelief, but you have to expect at least a little bit of logic.

Not so with Man on a Ledge, a film that pushes its so-called gritty drama and contrived high-stakes scenarios well past the point of believability.      

Like a cup-and-ball toy, Man on a Ledge is a vaguely interesting but ultimately annoying one-dimensional diversion. A patchwork of poorly constructed thrills (and one big spill), the movie is more likely to leave you rolling your eyes than perching at the edge of your seat. It just doesn't make any sense — asinine plot aside, it's another bland Hollywood production trying to hide its lack of ideas behind big-budget spectacles and attractive thespians.

Man on a Ledge is exactly the sort of over-serious, unexciting, slow-burn heist drama that movie studios pump out by the dozens, and it does little to distinguish itself from the crowd.

What audiences get is just one long, perfect example of Hollywood's intermittent but always hilarious self-defeating nature. The film is a commercial disaster before viewers even step foot in the door of the theater.

The film follows yet another boring hero-of-the-week (Sam Worthington, Texas Killing Fields) trying to vanquish an assemblage of cookie-cutter enemies. It's filmmaking at its most insipid, offering nothing beyond a sad excuse for a happy ending.

Even sadder is the script's abysmal attempt at appearing "current." Is it really necessary to blatantly turn the story into a hackneyed metaphor for the so-called plight of the 99 percent?

Whether you agree or disagree with the Occupy Wall Street movement, it feels offensive for a big movie studio to sell a fairy-tale ending, starring a host of overpaid actors, back to the little guy.

The film's acting — like its inauthentic, crowd-pleasing politics — comes across so forced that most scenes will leave audiences cringing. Worst of all is the bickering between Jamie Bell (The Adventures of Tintin) and the distractingly seductive Genesis Rodriguez (Entourage), who play a young couple inexplicably amazing at burglarizing penthouses.

Looking past all the bad acting and illogical narrative choices leaves you with 102 boring minutes of a man on a ledge. That certainly makes me want to jump.

VERDICT: Case closed: Man on a Ledge proves that a man on a ledge really isn't that exciting.

berman@umdbk.com