The president has been shot...or has he? The filmmakers are employing an inventive storytelling device...or are they? All is not as it seems in this star-studded mystery thriller which utilises the Rashomon-esque technique of telling the story from a multitude of character perspectives, which serves to slowly reveal the true nature of the terrorist attack/assassination attempt at a Spanish summit. The different perspectives we experience are from a news producer (Sigourney Weaver), secret service agents (Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox), a police officer (Eduardo Noreiga), an American tourist (Forest Whitaker), the president (William Hurt), and the terrorists - and it's at this point that the film relinquishes it's gimmick and turns into a by-the-book action movie.When the various POV route is abandoned in the final act the film descends into what can only be described as an overlong episode of 24 (and Quaid isn't no match for Kiefer). The plot may include various twists and turns but they're not all that interesting and the carefully layered revelations are rendered useless by the chaotic final scenes and the dull finale. Forest Whitaker's presence is puzzling, his character has a very minor role to play in the larger story and one suspects he may have only been cast so the phrase 'featuring Oscar winning actor' could be used on the poster. The major cast provide solid but unremarkable performances but none of them can save the film from it's silly plot and a lack of willing to see an interesting device through all the way to the end.
Verdict: It could have been so much better, a good idea badly executed. Massively disappointing, even the action's not all that.
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