The Varsity

Man on a Ledge starts off with a bang as we see cop-turned-framed-convict Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) walk with a chilling calm into a New York City hotel and have his last meal. All this happens with well-placed “thriller” music playing amidst a barrage of aerial shots and Cassidy’s mysteriously calculated actions. It’s too bad that this genuine suspense only lasts for the first five minutes of the film, as it is at this point that Cassidy is already on the ledge. On a Ledge reuses a number of well-known “wrongly-accused protagonist” thriller plots, particularly that of The Fugitive (1993) and Phone Booth (2002). The film is really all about Cassidy’s devotion to proving his innocence while tying in commentary about the Wall Street megalomaniacs who ruined the economy. Ed Harris is convincing as a diabolical millionaire thug, but the truth remains that there’s nothing on the edge about this film — except for those who made it.