When the president of the United States is shot at a rally in Spain, it sets off a chain of events that has terrorist-linked consequences. But there is more than meets the eye and people don't seem to be who they are.

Vantage Point tells the story of those events in the eyes of the different individuals involved: President Ashton (William Hurt); secret servicemen Tom Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox); sightseer Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker); news producer Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver); policeman Enrique (Eduardo Noriega); and the terrorists (Saïd Taghmaoui, Ayelet Zurer and Edgar Ramirez).

Sounds interesting enough, but the film doesn't quite live up to the promise of the premise. The set-up is excellent for about the first 45 minutes.

Too bad the fast forward/rewind technique used by director Peter Travis (reminiscent of Run Lola Run) is done so often that it distracts more than informs; and really, after the fifth rewind, you do start wondering when the movie is actually going to take off.

The answer? Somewhere during the last 20 minutes. From then on, the action is fast and searing typical Hollywood last-gasp chase to catch the bad guys stuff.

But that still leaves you wondering whether some of the characters could have been excised, and it does not help that the ending is just all-too-convenient to be believed.

Still, if you can put up with the first-half, then you'll be fine for the home stretch. - TODAY/ar