<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Asger Leth. Starring Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell, Genesis Rodriguez, Edward Burns, Ed Harris.

A unique premise that is somewhat poorly executed but nevertheless Man On A Ledge manages to hold your interest.

Sam Worthington is only slightly better as an actor than Dwayne Johnson (in this week’s Journey 2: The Mysterious Island) but with probably not as good a personality as The Rock! Sam plays cop Nick Cassidy, in jail for stealing a diamond, which he says he was framed for. He then escapes, checks in to the Roosevelt Hotel in New York, has a nice breakfast, wipes off his prints and steps out onto the ledge of his room where he is perceived a suicide jumper and the drama begins.

Nick calls for Officer Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks) to help talk him off the roof. But something isn’t right here, she realises. And while as an audience you know he’s not going to jump, you wonder if this is just about proving his innocence. Because in the background on top of another roof of a building just across the hotel where he teeters above a crowd cheering ‘Jump, jump, jump’ are his brother Joey (Jamie Bell) and Joey’s girlfriend Angie (Genesis Rodriguez). They’re breaking in to the vault building owned by David Englander (Ed Harris), the tycoon whose diamond was apparently stolen.

The real tension in Man On A Ledge doesn’t arise from Nick on the top of a building but from Joey and Angie’s ‘heist’ along with some pretty shady cops lurking in the background wanting to push Nick off the ledge. Kyra Sedgwick as reporter Suzie Morales provides some background humour, the filmmakers taking a dig at journalists who chase ambulances! A disturbingly emaciated Ed Harris plays the bad guy convincingly but he doesn’t really have any good guy counterpart: Worthington just about musters some leading man vibes. Jamie Bell and Genesis Rodriguez (in her pink bra) are far more fun to watch.

You’re pretty much set up for the unfolding chain of events but in your mind you’re wondering: a) are they going to steal the diamond again? (b) are they going to put the allegedly stolen diamond back? (c) are they going in to prove that the diamond was never stolen in the first place? Well I’m not telling otherwise you won’t have much fun at the movie.