Like Snakes on a Plane, Man on a Ledge is a bluntly up-front title: a subject and a predicate, reducing the picture to the essence of its poster art. I’m all for enigmatic titles, but this approach has its allure. Why are there snakes on a plane? And why is that man on that ledge?
In Asger Leth’s debut feature, the man is Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington), a former cop, apparent jewel thief and escaped convict who spends most of the picture perched on the ledge of a Manhattan skyscraper hotel in a state of knee-buckling precariousness. (The rest of this paragraph may contain some spoilers). But he has no intention of jumping, we soon learn. While the media and increasing hordes of bloodthirsty pedestrians watch from below, his pseudo-suicidal stunt is just a diversion for his real plan: to clear his name and prove that he didn’t steal a precious diamond by exposing the industry captain who framed him. To this end, he has sent his brother and brother’s girlfriend to penetrate the bowels of a neighboring edifice and uncover the fraud.
Nick’s other ally is Lydia Mercer (a well-cast Elizabeth Banks), a police psychologist and an “outsider” on the force who is still licking her wounds after her previous man-on-a-ledge ended up taking the plunge. She’s joined in Cassidy’s hotel room by Jack Dougherty, played by Edward Burns with the actor’s trademarked blend of bland smugness.
The film’s strongest casting is that of Ed Harris as David Englander, the film’s real estate-tycoon arch-villain. With his slicked-back remnants of hair and three-piece suits oozing malfeasance, he plays the part with memorably melodramatic menace, so unctuous his character must bathe in Pennzoil.
So these are the cards in place, twisting and turning before toppling toward a climax. Many of these twists are ludicrous, hilariously implausible even considering its disbelief-suspending parameters. As long as it feels right, the movie runs with it, logic be damned.
That said, Man on a Ledge is a better-than-average action thriller, especially in the dump month of January. It moves well, and it will please moviegoers looking for Die Hard-like escapism.
Worthington is no Bruce Willis in his prime, but the elements are similar: confined building, flustered/helpful cops, sarcastic humor, soulless bad guy. The movie is especially effective if you fear heights, as I do – my knees went weak every time Leth’s camera swooped around its immobile antihero, reminding us that one errant sneeze could send him falling.
Though it’s ancillary to the action, screenwriter Pablo F. Fenjves can’t help but insert some well-timed social commentary. When Nick wants to create a bigger distraction, he takes out a wad of bills and sends them fluttering to the street, where, naturally, civilized men and women push through police barricades and act like pigs at a trough. The obviously Caucasian-American Kyra Sedgwick is cast as shameless newscaster “Suzie Morales,” transforming into a Latina only when broadcasting her name for the camera.
And, most important, there are numerous references to the stock market crash and the Great Recession, with Ed Harris’s Englander embodying the “1 percent” that caused it. This film was surely written prior to the formation of the Occupy movement, but it’s obvious where its sympathies lie.
MAN ON A LEDGE. Director: Asger Leth; Cast: Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Ed Harris, Jamie Bell, Kyra Sedgwick, Genesis Rodriguez, Edward Burns; Distributor: Summit; Rating: PG-13; Opens: Friday at most theaters