The Ledge (Au Bord du Gouffre)
One life. One chance. One step.
In this race-against-time thriller, the opposing philosophies of two men embroiled in a complicated love triangle with a beautiful woman (Liv Tyler) escalate into a lethal battle of wills. Ultimately, the believer (Patrick Wilson) forces the non-believer (Charlie Hunnam) onto the ledge of a tall building. He gives him one hour to make a choice between his own life and someone else’s, while a policeman (Terrence Howard) tries to convince him to come down from the ledge. Without faith in an afterlife, will he be capable of such a sacrifice? The Ledge is a nuanced character study of love and conviction that will force you to ask how far you’d be willing to go for what you believe in.
Member Reviews
Many, many topics - MikeB
My, this movie has a lot of things spinning. It's like watching CNN for an hour with every conceivable topic trying to be covered. Here are some of them (I am sure I missed a few): religious conversion as in "born again" and no religion, infertility, adultery, gay, and trauma (all three main characters had some form of it). Conversations ensue on all these so it is a chatty film.
But the plot moves along with good twists and turns with a conclusive ending. I did find the character played by Liv Tyler to be overly subdued and monotone – and she rather slowed the film down too much. Or this film lacked energy bursts sometimes. For characters with a dysfunctional past they didn't seem particularly animated. I refer in particular to Liv Tyler who was selling herself for drugs and found the Lord through her husband. Or said another way, I would have expected a woman who opens a beer bottle with her teeth to be a little more spunky! Her husband (Patrick Wilson), it would seem, was a one-time pornographer and dealer who also found the Lord's calling – his anger is suppressed through his Biblical utterances.
The film does require some patience – it became too academic in the middle as well as artificial. I did enjoy the performance of Charlie Hunnan and Terrence Howard. In the end I suppose what we have left is love and acceptance.
Member Reviews
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Many, many topics - MikeB
My, this movie has a lot of things spinning. It's like watching CNN for an hour with every conceivable topic trying to be covered. Here are some of them (I am sure I missed a few): religious conversion as in "born again" and no religion, infertility, adultery, ...