Ed Harris, Jaime Bell, Edward Burns
"You can only push an innocent man so far."
In the opening scenes we see Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) check into a midtown Manhattan hotel then orders room service. After his meal, he climbs out the window and onto the ledge some 25 stories up. Thus the title "Man on a Ledge".
Through flashbacks, we establish that Nick was a former NYPD detective who is serving time for stealing a very valuable diamond belonging to a wealthy real estate developer named David Englander (Ed Harris). So Cassidy escapes and is now standing precariously on a ledge in the hotel which is owned by Englander. The remaining minutes focuses on the reason why Cassidy is on the ledge along with some side plots that occur simultaneously.
The plot is very flimsy. The motives behind his threat to jump off a tall building isn't given much depth. His so called protest against corporate corruption and corrupt cops could have been played out more effectively with more details on just how Englander is a despicable tycoon. His very public outcry high up on the ledge as a diversionary tactic while side plot unfolds is pretty lame, too. The movie has been boxed into a very tight corner from which there appears to be no escape but to jump off the ledge. In other words, escape by quitting the film midway. Not caring if Cassidy gets his requests or if he does get off the darn ledge, after all.
The big supporting cast all getting a fair amount of screen time turn in good performances. Ed Burns (one of my fave actors) is the only reason I didn't press the stop button. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get enough to do as cop Jack Dougherty, (the first responder to the scene) in order to steal the entire movie.
"Man on a Ledge" is not necessarily a bad film but neither is it a good one. It is a pretty average movie that doesn't take too much brain cells to process.
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