Man on a Ledge

Blu-ray Review: ‘Man on a Ledge’ Jumps Into Convoluted Abyss

BrianTT — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 16:51:30 -0400

CHICAGO – “Man on a Ledge” wants to be “Dog Day Afternoon” for the ’10s recession (it’s not coincidental that a man screams “Attica!” at one point). A tale of a man screwed by a corrupt system who stages a complex heist and galvanizes the people of New York in the process could have worked so well. There are great actors and great ideas here. And there’s also the most convoluted, ridiculous, and poorly written script that I’ve suffered through in a very long time.

Rating: 1.5/5.0

“Man on a Ledge” starts promisingly enough. A cop (Sam Worthington) looking at 25 years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit rents a room on the 21st floor, opens the window, and steps out on to the ledge. He asks for a specific officer (Elizabeth Banks) to take his case and the film quickly reveals that the suicidal intent is merely a ruse. A complex, ridiculous, convoluted, INSANE ruse. To be blunt, “Man on a Ledge” makes no sense. It relies on too many coincidences to be remotely believable and as the complete lack of logic fades away so does any interest in what’s going on. The sheer talent of the cast keeps it from complete disaster. But it teeters on the ledge.

Man on a Ledge was released on Blu-ray and DVD on May 29, 2012
Photo credit: Summit

Synopsis:
In the film critics call a “white-knuckle action thriller,” (Mose Persico, CTV Montreal) ex-cop Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington, Avatar & Clash of the Titans) escapes from prison to plan the ultimate heist: steal a $40 million diamond from cutthroat businessman David Englander (Ed Harris), and in the process prove his innocence. From the ledge of the famous Roosevelt Hotel, with the whole world watching, Cassidy plays a clever game of cat & mouse with the NYPD while his dutiful brother Joey (Jamie Bell) works against the clock to extract the diamond and clear his brother’s name.

Special Features:
o The Ledge Featurette
o Trailer With Commentary By Elizabeth Banks

“Man on a Ledge” stars Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Anthony Mackie, Ed Harris, Jamie Bell, and Genesis Rodriguez. It was directed by Asger Leth.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Film News: ‘The Grey’ Knocks Off ‘Underworld: Awakening’ at Box Office

TimBMartens — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:17:29 -0500

CHICAGO – 2012 continues its trend for the fourth straight weekend with another new film coming in at number one. In a month of all sorts of new releases, “The Grey” is the fourth different film to win the box office on its opening weekend.

Starring Liam Neeson as a survivor of a plane crash in Alaska that must brave the elements and a hungry pack of wolves, “The Grey” grossed an estimated $20 million in its first weekend in theaters. The total was good enough to knock off last weekend’s champ, “Underworld Awakening,” which finished in second with an estimated $12.5 million.

The weekend’s other two new releases “One for the Money” and “Man on a Ledge” came in at three and five, respectively. Katherine Heigl’s obnoxious bounty hunter/comedy made an estimated $11.8 million, while Sam Worthington standing on the ledge of a building was intriguing enough for audiences to pay $8.3 million over the weekend.

The other news of note was “The Descendants” re-emerging into the top ten this weekend with a $6.6 million gross. The film expanded to 2,001 theaters on Friday, and the expansion raised the film 176% from its total gross last weekend.

Will the trend of a new release at number one continue next weekend when “The Woman in Black,” “Chronicle,” “The Innkeepers,” “Big Miracle,” and “W.E.” hit theaters, or can “The Grey” stop the trend and win for a second week in a row? We will have to wait until Super Bowl Sunday to find out.

1. The Grey– $20 million – new
2. Underworld Awakening– $12.5. million – down 51% — $45.1 million total
3. One for the Money– $11.8 million – new
4. Red Tails– $10.4 million – down 45% — $33.8 million total
5. Man on a Ledge — $8.3 million – new
6. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close– $7.1 million – down 29% — $21.1 million total
7. The Descendants – $6.6 million – up 176% — $58.8 million total
8. Contraband – $6.5 million – down 46% — $56.4 million total
9. Beauty and the Beast 3D – $5.3 million – down 39% — $41.1 million total
10. Haywire– $4 million – down 53% — $15.3 million total

By TIM MARTENS
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
tim@hollywoodchicago.com

Film Review: Elizabeth Banks Teeters With the ‘Man on a Ledge’

PatrickMcD — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:24:51 -0500

CHICAGO – New York City. Mid-day. A man steps outside the window on the edge of the Roosevelt Hotel. Is he jumping? That’s the question that street level onlookers and moviegoers want answered from Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell and Ed Harris in “Man on a Ledge”

Rating: 3.0/5.0

This trifle of an action film does have some mojo going for it. It’s played a bit tongue-in-cheek, with the wry Banks filling the role as the hard-drinking New York Police suicide negotiator. The tension in this film is wholly exaggerated, to a point where it teeters on the brink of parody. All the ensemble cast has their game faces on, however, as the somewhat overly complex plot unravels.

Sam Worthington is Nick Cassidy, introduced as a cop-turned-thief doing hard time at Sing-Sing. His brother Joey (Jamie Bell) is embarrassed that Nick has sullied the family name, but does manage to get Nick a temporary furlong from the joint to attend his father’s funeral. Also attending are is the convict’s old police partner Mike Ackerman (Anthony Mackie) and Joey’s girlfriend, Angie (Génesis Rodríguez). Nick is able to distract his handlers enough to make a spectacular escape from the graveyard. The manhunt to retrieve him is on, led by his ex-partner.

The next time Nick makes an appearance is on the ledge of the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. The chaos surrounding the event is almost instantaneous, as onlookers encourage Nick to jump, even as he insists he will talk only to police suicide negotiator Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks). The show on the ledge is a deception, however. Nick is out to clear his name and get revenge on David Englander (Ed Harris), the rich dude who sent him up the river. While Nick distracts the New York City police department, the brother/girlfriend combination of Joey and Angie are breaking into Englander’s supposedly impenetrable safe deep in the building next door.

“Man on a Ledge” opens everywhere on January 27th. Featuring Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell, Anthony Mackie, Ed Harris, Edward Burns, Kyra Sedgwick and Génesis Rodríguez. Screenplay by Pablo Fenjves, directed by Asger Leth. Rated “PG-13”

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Man on a Ledge”

Sam Worthington with Elizabeth Banks in ‘Man on a Ledge’
Photo credit: Myles Aronowitz for Summit Entertainment

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Man on a Ledge”

Interview: Actor Sam Worthington on Life as ‘Man on a Ledge’

PatrickMcD — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:50:26 -0500

CHICAGO – Sam Worthington is instantly recognizable for his break out role in “Avatar,” playing the Marine turned blue citizen of Na’vi. His follow-up was as Perseus in “Clash of the Titans,” and he will repeat that role in the upcoming “Wrath of the Titans.” Opening this week, he is the title character in “Man on a Ledge.”

The busy action star was born in England, but his family moved to Australia when he was six months old. His acting training came mostly from Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Arts, which he attended on scholarship. After schooling he worked on a number of Australian TV shows and movies, at the same time doing bit parts in American TV shows like “JAG” and films like “Hart’s War” (2002). His banner year was 2009, when he was cast in “Avatar” after a worldwide search for the right actor to play Jake Sully by director James Cameron, and followed up with a key role in “Terminator: Salvation.”

Sam Worthington with Elizabeth Banks in ‘Man on a Ledge’
Photo credit: Myles Aronowitz Summit Entertainment

Sam Worthington plays the title role of Nick Cassidy in “Man on a Ledge,” which features a large ensemble cast, including Elizabeth Banks and Ed Harris. The in-demand actor was in Chicago on a promotional tour last week, and HollywoodChicago.com got the opportunity to talk to him about his new film and sizzling career.

HollywoodChicago.com: Of all the scripts you’ve had to consider in stepping up in your career after Avatar, what were the elements of ‘Man on a Ledge’ that attracted you to the story and character?

Sam Worthington: It was mainly the producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, I’ve known him for years. We always looked to work together. And in the movies he makes, like the ‘Transformers’ series and ‘Red,’ his primary goal is to always entertain an audience, that’s what he sets out to do. My job exists to entertain an audience, so we just tried to find something that is quick, simple and entertaining. You know what you’re going to get on a Friday night.

HollywoodChicago.com: This is obviously a film about trusting the right people at the right time. What character trait did you want to express about Nick Cassidy that allows him to instinctively trust the right people?

Worthington: It’s a leap a faith to walk out on that ledge, and it’s a leap of faith to call in the character Elizabeth Banks plays, and at the start he thinks the plan is going on accordingly, so that trait in believing in things straight off is what I liked. It’s just when the plan unravels that it gets desperate and it gets harder, but he trusts in people from the get-go.

HollywoodChicago.com: This was the feature debut of director Asger Leth. What of his own personal stamp did you note about him, that separated him from other directors you’ve worked with, either during the actual shoot or in the finished product?

Worthington: The only other film he made was a documentary, and so when he directs he just lets the camera roll, he doesn’t mollycoddle you, he just lets the camera play and lets you play. It’s a free form way of shooting, but I kind of liked it.

HollywoodChicago.com: This film was a mix of up and coming performers, established veterans and Oscar nominees. Do you learn more about performing and the film business from your co-stars, and if you do, what did you learn from them on the set of ‘Man on a Ledge’?

Worthington: Always, you’re only as good as the person you’re acting opposite with, because they raise the game and therefore you have to as well. There are people like Anthony [Mackie] and Jamie [Bell], I’ve known them awhile and like their work, they’re not coming in to muck around, they’re coming in to get the job done. With Elizabeth, she’s the ‘Bruce Willis’ of the movie and I’m the damsel-in-distress, [laughs] so I needed her to play around with and to bounce off of her.

With Ed Harris – it’s John Glenn, Beethoven, Pollock, so many memorable performances that he has put on film – I was more nervous about meeting him than going on the ledge. And then when you act with him, it’s like going up against any top actor, part of you is observing and being astonished by their talent, and the level of ease that they do it with, and on the other side it you’ve got to step up your performance or it’s going to be a joke. It’s like with sports teams, you want to play at the top of the ladder, because that will always improve you. I look at this film as the same thing.

HollywoodChicago.com: You brought it up, so let’s talk about the technical aspects of acting on a ledge. Did they build it out or do any type of special tricks to make it easier for you?

Worthington: It was actually the top of the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, and we built an extra room there, it’s called a skybox, so they could move the room around to get different angles. The ledge itself was always 14 inches wide, and my feet always hung over the edge of it.

HollywoodChicago.com: The film makes some statements about modern society, especially the voyeurism of the crowd wanting the character to jump. What element of the larger American culture and society was present for you, when you first read the script?

Worthington: It wasn’t in the script, but it was something we talked about. You can’t shut down New York City, no matter how many blocks are closed off. So having a documentary director, he was going to get another character no matter what crowd formed. Some are extras, obviously, but other times it was just people walking by and shouting out their opinions. He just let the camera roll on them, and from that you get a balanced point-of-view between the extras and actual pedestrians. That’s what he set out to do, but it wasn’t on the page.

Sam Worthington with His Alter Ego in ‘Avatar’
Photo credit: Twentieth Century Fox

HollywoodChicago.com: You were part of cutting edge technology during the filming of Avatar. What part of that journey most amazed you, and did you ever personally feel separated from the character that you played, as if he were a different person from you, even though you brought him to life?

Worthington: The part that amazed me was how the character was embraced, because when you’re making something like that, even though it’s James Cameron, you don’t know how it’s going to turn out, it could have been a bomb. Who knows how the marketplace was going to react? These were big blue cats on another planet, with this insane story. But when I was doing it, I was living it, so there wasn’t any separation. Jake Sully was the essence of my nephew, he was a kid, going through a playpen. A rebellious kid in a new school. And the kids he’s been told to pick on, he ends up standing up for. Jim liked that idea, which gave me a sense of play, and it was a lot more fun.

HollywoodChicago.com: There was so much technical maneuverings in doing the Avatar role. What kind of imagination did you and your fellow performers tap into when emoting the roles, while in the midst of all the light bulb suits and empty warehouses of the technology?

Worthington: You fall into it. Acting is truth in imaginary circumstances, anyway. I’m not really a cop in ‘Man on a Ledge,’ it’s all pretend. The Avatar situation was absolute truth in absolute imaginary circumstances. There was nothing there except your imagination. Jim was trying to create the world as much as possible, but when there was a big-ass monster in front of you, and it was some guy yelling and growling at you, you just go with it. The more you dive in and be fearless, the easier it is. It’s just kids in a sandbox, that’s what it is.

HollywoodChicago.com: ‘The Debt’ was one of the most fascinating and underrated films of 2011. What do you think the morality of the characters in ‘The Debt’ can teach us about the lionizing so-called heroes during that type of war?

Worthington: The great thing about the situation is that the characters were naive, they were naive Mossad agents, which we hadn’t seen on film before. If you compare it to the film ‘Munich,’ where the agents were killers, and whatever else you read it is like that. In reality, they were kids, naive kids who were trying to do something for their country. The last in the pecking order, thrown into a situation that was so intense, with emotional baggage that kept weighing them down. What we wanted to say was whatever their choices or mistakes were, the essence was always good.

HollywoodChicago.com: Ciarán Hinds played you as an older man. Did you get to interact with him?

Sam Worthington in Chicago, January 18th, 2012
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Worthington: No. Marton [Csokas] met with Tom Wilkinson, his older character, but Ciarán and I never had cause to get together. I just told him here was where I thought the character ended, and what I thought he did for the thirty years afterward.

HollywoodChicago.com: It was interesting to see what your co-star on ‘The Debt,’ Jessica Chastain, has done in the last year…

Worthington: She had done seven or eight movies at once, when we did ‘Texas Killing Fields’ she was in the middle of it. She was going for the record. [laughs] I think only Colin Farrell had made more films before he was known. Jess went for the record, and I think she blitzed it. I think when you’re not known by an audience, you can diversify yourself a lot more. I come out and do three action movies, you kind of get an idea of who your audience is. [laughs]

HollywoodChicago.com: What was fulfilling to you about taking on a modern interpretation of MacBeth in one of your early Australian film roles, and what did you appreciate more about Shakespeare’s original work after it was completed?

Worthington: I had done a lot of Shakespeare in drama school, and you don’t get to play roles like MacBeth and Hamlet when you’re young, so that was the appeal to me for that movie. I think we failed gloriously with that film, but that’s okay because we gave it a good go. What I got out of that is you have to be fearless with Shakespeare, and it is still relevant. It is the themes of his work that is still prevalent in this society. He deals with the human essence, what it is to be human.

HollywoodChicago.com: What do you think is within the Australian show business culture and imagination that has that makes it so successful in importing actors to mainstream and worldwide entertainment?

Worthington: In Australia, you have to do everything. If you come out of drama school and want to be an actor there, you do everything from a play to TV, to a film if you’re lucky, back to a play, just the whole gamut. By doing that, your skills and work ethic increases, you can’t fool around.

So by the time you’re with the big boys, you’ve done so much, that when I sat in a room with James Cameron, I wasn’t a greenhorn. I had done ten years in my own country. I had done 15 movies, two TV series and four plays by the time I met with Jim. I may had been fresh to the world, but I wasn’t in terms of my profession and where I thought I could take it. Hugh Jackman and Cate Blanchett also had massive careers in Australia before they came here as well.

HollywoodChicago.com: What do know so far about ‘Avatar 2’ that you can share with the audience that anticipates it?

Worthington: I know the story of Part Two and Three, Jim sat me down and told me recently, and it is monumental, that is all I can say. He is also pushing the technology of how we do it. Motion Capture has gone farther, look at ‘Planet of the Apes’ and ‘The Adventures of TinTin.’ Jim is going to raise the bar again. I don’t know how he’s going to do it, but he’s going to give it a good crack. [laughs]

By PATRICK McDONALD
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

Interview: Actor, Filmmaker Edward Burns on Guiding ‘Newlyweds’

PatrickMcD — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:06:34 -0500

CHICAGO – Edward Burns is a recognizable character actor, having introduced himself to audiences in the mid-1990s with “The Brothers McMullen.” He also is a veteran filmmaker, having written and directed that film, “She’s The One,” “Sidewalks of New York” and the recent “Newlyweds.”

Burns has taken a more guerilla approach to filmmaking in the last ten years, preferring micro-budget productions with a consistent crew. Since 2002, he has made six feature films, all outside the boundaries of Hollywood. He has partnered with Tribeca Films for his latest outing, “Newlyweds,” a sharp adult comedy about various stages of relationships and marriage in New York City.

Burns also has had a pretty visible career as a film actor in other productions, more notable as Pvt. Reiben in Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan.” Recently, he played opposite Katherine Heigl in “27 Dresses” and will be in the upcoming “Man on a Ledge” opposite Elizabeth Banks. He also has done television, including a three episode arc on “Will & Grace” in 2005, and he portrayed himself on HBO’s “Entourage.”

Caitlin Fitzgerald (Katie) and Edward Burns (Buzzy) in ‘Newlyweds’
Photo credit: Tribeca Films

HollywoodChicago.com caught up with actor, writer and director Edward Burns during this week’s promotional tour for “Newlyweds.” The candid filmmaker talked about his method of movie production and his career.

HollywoodChicago.com: What did you observe or experience that inspired the screenplay for ‘Newlyweds’?

Edward Burns: There were a handful of conversations that I was a part of or overheard that got me to thinking about the subject. One was a friend’s wedding anniversary, where somebody made a toast that said if the marriage ended tonight, after 10 years in this day and age, you could call it a success. That’s kind of true and kind of tragic. In modern marriage, ten years is the equivalence of making the playoffs. Not the Super Bowl, but it’s all right.

That got me going on a script about married couples. I was looking for something also that could be a companion piece to my earlier film, ‘Sidewalks of New York.’ That’s how the pseudo-documentary style came about, and I knew I wanted three couples. One couple married for 18 years, and near the end of their run, another that were newlyweds and an impetuous younger couple.

HollywoodChicago.com: Was anything drawn from your own life in the film?

Burns: I met a couple at a party, and stole their story from them. They were both in a second marriage, and worked different shifts, he at night and she during the day. They never saw each other, so it was guaranteed to work out. I gave that situation to the main couple in my story. Also if they were older and wiser they would have a more pragmatic approach to life, and I also applied that to their marriage.

HollywoodChicago.com: The reported budget for ‘Newlyweds’ was less than $10,000. What kind of planning as a writer/director do you have to do to meet that number. What are the greatest advantages to that level of budget?

Burns: The primary advantage is full creative control. When somebody else writes you a check they are your partner, and they are entitled to a say in a lot of the creative decisions. It’s usually about casting, you have to get certain actors to warrant a certain budget. Everything that has happened to me, and to other filmmakers over the years – you can’t cast who you want to cast, they change your title, they change your ending, music, lines.

HollywoodChicago.com: I don’t picture those guys being that creative.

Burns: No, they usually have MBAs. [laughs] I always joke to them, ‘hey, your notes are great, but do me a favor. At the end of the year, I want to sit down in the boardroom and go over the final budget with you. You can imagine how helpful I will be there. That’s how helpful you are now.’ [laughs] They don’t find it as funny as we do.

Edward Burns in ‘Man on a Ledge’
Photo credit: Myles Aronowitz for Summit Entertainment

HollywoodChicago.com: So essentially you’ve come up with a working economic model for creative control.

Burns: For us, this four-person band of production staff and crew, we all work for free, and we all own the film. It’s pretty much like an indie rock band approach – you’re going to rehearse after work, you go for your filming time on the weekends and if it takes two years to make the movie, you’re still going to make it, because we all love it. That’s our approach going into production.

When I’m writing the screenplay, we never thought we wanted to make the movie for $9000. We said we wanted to make a movie, but let’s spend when we want to spend. As I was mapping out the plot points in the script, I thought about what they do for a living, where they live and where they hang out. I thought about what locations I get for free, that I can work into the script.

In thinking about the couple who work split shifts, I knew a ton of people who have restaurants, so I made the woman in the couple own a restaurant. A friend of mine owns a small gym, and I called him up and asked if we could use it. He said absolutely, so my character Buzzy becomes a personal trainer. It’s a matter of cataloging things you have access to, and lining them up with your screenplay, and match what you can.

HollywoodChicago.com: What kind of transition did you have to make between the success of getting your first film ‘The Brothers McMullen’ in the marketplace, to landing in your first major studio film in ‘She’s the One’?

Burns: We shot McMullen in 12 days, with a three man crew, so I had never been on a ‘real’ film set before. I showed up on the first day on ‘She’s The One,’ with my script, my direction and I was acting in it. And not having been on a movie set before, so you can imagine how intimidating that was.

I was smart because I insisted that the budget ‘only’ be three million dollars. Coming off of McMullen, I could have made it for $15 million, but I said keep it down. At $15 million, ‘She’s The One’ would have lost money. At three million, it tripled its profit. I knew that at the larger budget it would have been unruly on set, and again it came down to creative control. At three million, FOX was like, ‘hey, the kid made us a ton of money with McMullen, let him do his thing.’

HollywoodChicago.com: It’s amazing that you had that perspective without the stars in your eyes.

Burns: I think the difference was I was 27 years-old, and I’d already had every sh*tty job a young guy could have. If I were 22, I’d probably would have said $15 million wasn’t enough, give me 25.

HollywoodChicago.com: Given the landscape in which you experienced relationships in your lifetime, do you think there is a formula that makes a long-term marriage work, in your observation, as opposed to going from relationship to relationship?

Edward Burns in Chicago, January 12, 2011
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Burns: We kind of collectively discovered it, the cast and crew, because that’s all we talked about while filming the movie. We came to the conclusion that in all relationships, marriage, friendships, whatever…sometimes it’s the giant, cataclysmic event that ends it. But other times it’s these smaller petty things, when stacked on top on one another carries a great weight, and that’s the thing that can cripple it. The same thing was true of communication and honesty. It might not be the ‘big lie,’ but the lies of omission that over time can make someone comfortable with not being truthful.

HollywoodChicago.com: In your evolution as a writer and an actor, what do you believe are the greatest lessons you’ve learned, in going from the twentysomething guy that made ‘The Brothers McMullen’ to the fortysomething man of ‘Newlyweds’?

Burns: As a writer, when I looked at the films that I had made, from McMullen through the ‘Sidewalks of New York,’ I was a student of screenwriting. It was important for me to keep educating myself. But after Sidewalks, I don’t know if it was laziness or what, but for five years I know longer valued traditional story structure. I took my eye off the ball, and although the films I made during that time were good, I could see they don’t have that clear narrative drive that the earlier work had.

After I made “Purple Violets” in 2007, I thought that something wasn’t working, what was wrong? I just went back to school, dug out the old screenwriting books and got much tougher on myself. I look at this film, and my upcoming scripts, and the structure is sound. Which makes for a better film.

HollywoodChicago.com: How was the atmosphere on the upcoming ‘Man on a Ledge,’ and how did you develop the nice chemistry you had with Elizabeth Banks?

Burns: I got lucky with Elizabeth. We showed up and became immediate friends. When we did our first scene, the director liked what we were doing, and they ended up writing a few scenes just to get more humor in it. It was a fun flick.

HollywoodChicago.com: What is in development right now for you?

Burns: I am outlining the sequel to ‘The Brothers McMullen.’ I have a great idea for it, too.

HollywoodChicago.com: That’s good news.

”Newlyweds” continues its limited release in Chicago on January 13th, and is available on iTunes and Video On Demand. See listings for theater, show times and providers. Featuring Edwards Burns, Caitlin Fitzgerald, Max Baker, Kerry Bishé and Marsha Dietlein. Written and Directed by Edward Burns. Not Rated.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com