Have you read Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s “In A Grove” or seen its movie adaptation? I see “Vantage Point” in those. And “Memento”! I almost forgot that Nolan film. The kind of story-telling may not be unique, but at least it was used effectively. The fast-paced unraveling of events did not compromise the audience’s ability to follow through. It’s a neat trick, actually. You see, with one angle presented after the other, it’s hard to process what was happening without losing the thread of information completely. Voila! It keeps you guessing.

Word of advice: watch the trailer carefully. And, always, always, the journey is far juicier than the ending.

Flashbacks and repetitive scenes aside, I think the movie was intense and engrossing. It completes the hazy picture by delving into 8 different perspectives of 8 different strangers. When you see the story in a new way, there’s this aching need to lay it beside the previous point of view and weave it together.

The thing I liked most about it was it tries so hard to sway the conversations away from the politics and packed it with more action sequences instead. They weren’t trying to instill anything to the viewers, at least not directly, and just made sure that the audience focused as to how the shooting and bombing were orchestrated. I’m all for politics but after sitting through a Clinton-Obama Democratic Debate on CNN earlier today, I think I had enough.

The ensemble is…perfect. Nobody tried to upstage anybody, but one does have a larger role than the other. I did expect a lot from the American actors (Weaver, Saldana, Quiad), but was more impressed by the foreign ones. There was a fluid connection between the characters. My personal favorite was Forest Whitaker. I think he’ll forever be a favorite after “The Last King of Scotland”, anyway.