Stars:
*** 1/2
Rating: PG-13 for language, gunplay and
violence
Run Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Smart
escapist thrillers are a dying breed, each of the current crop more contrived
than the last. Thankfully “Point” is one of the good ones.
Salamanca,
Spain, present day. Throngs have gathered in the town square for a high-powered
summit engineered to put a stranglehold on international terrorism.
Salamanca’s
mayor eagerly addresses the crowd and proudly introduces the President of the
United States (William Hurt as President Ashton). As Ashton steps to the podium
and acknowledges the cheers shots ring out and the Commander in Chief goes
down.
That swift and
tragic act sets an uber-taut narrative in motion. A series of bombs explode in
the square and the masses rupture in panic, control turning to chaos.
The action
unfolds in crisp, staccato fashion; its brazen dramatics methodically rewound
and begun again and again, each from its own separate vantage point.
Those
points of view swing wildly from the personal to the political, from the GNN
producer (Sigourney Weaver) who’s broadcasting the summit and the washed-up
Secret Service agent (Dennis Quaid) who may have uncovered an agency sub-plot,
to the tourist cum amateur videographer (Forest Whitaker) in the wrong place at
the wrong time and all the President’s men who believe the incident may be
retaliation for blowing the lid off a dirty bomb scheme out of Morocco.
As the ticking
clock repeatedly turns itself back to noon, replays bring the plot’s shadowy playbook
into sharp focus. Pieces of the puzzle click into place, matching good vs. evil
with full-rush adrenaline until the last frame.
Juicy rogue
agents, romantic betrayals and covert operations are present and accounted for
yet roughly kept in linear check. Body count is high and the message on
terrorism dire: will it never end?