Man on a Ledge (2012)

Even the title gets the point across cleanly.

That one spot is a ledge, high up on the side of a New York building. This is a brilliant, simple idea, much like Speed (1994) or Phone Booth (2003).

This time, the main character can't move around much, but each time he does, he raises a tense gasp from the crowd.

Sam Worthington (Avatar) plays Nick Cassidy, our man on the ledge. The movie opens simply. He checks into a hotel. He eats a meal, leaves a note, puts on his coat, and steps out onto the ledge.

An early flashback provides the additional information that Nick was in prison, and that he's a former cop.

The NYPD arrives, but Nick will only speak to Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks), who has a troubled, but infamous past.

Lydia wakes up with a hangover, presumably the latest of many. She heads to work grumpy and fuzzy, and tries to find out more about her jumper. Weirdly, there is nothing. He hasn't even left any fingerprints in the room.

Thus begins our mystery, not only: how is Nick going to get down, but why is he on the ledge in the first place?

The answer is not particularly deep, but it is lots of fun. It involves Nick's brother Joey (Jamie Bell), Joey's sexy, firecracker girlfriend (Genesis Rodriguez, in a star-making performance), Nick's former partner (Anthony Mackie), and a ruthless tycoon (Ed Harris).

Oh, and there's a really big diamond.

Director Leth is the son of Danish filmmaker Jorgen Leth, who is best known in this country for co-directing The Five Obstructions (2003) with Lars von Trier. The younger Leth also worked on the script for that film.

With his feature directorial debut, Leth delivers a lean, tight movie with clear, exciting action. One particular scene in which a SWAT team descends onto the ledge is truly gasp-worthy.

The script by Pablo F. Fenjves has just the right dash of mystery, without getting too complex. It withholds information rather than dishing it out too eagerly.

Best of all, when the movie finally does hit the ground, it hits the ground running. And the credits roll before the momentum is lost.

In short, Man on a Ledge doesn't let us down.