Man on a Ledge | Screen | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper

Man on a Ledge

Preposterous comedy-thriller offers some entertainment

In which we see a man (Sam Worthington) escape from jail and reunite with some items in a storage locker before heading to midtown Manhattan, where he parks himself — yes — on a high-story ledge. It's up to a feisty cop (Elizabeth Banks) to figure out why an escaped con would purposefully attract so much attention. As the police scratch their heads, director Asger Leth shows us a subplot, featuring a motivated young couple (Jamie Bell and Genesis Rodriguez), which explains quite a bit. (Let's just say there might be a huuuuge diamond involved.)  It is a very complicated set-up designed to clear the con's name, and it all makes as much sense as, say, breaking out of jail and then calling the cops. Man is straight-up pulp-fiction material, a light thriller-comedy with a wildly unrealistic plot that can be charitably indulged only by mid-winter viewers with their senses dulled. (Miz Rodriguez understands, and obligingly vamps her pneumatic figure quite a bit.) A whole slew of your favorite TV character actors drops by, and a spectral Ed Harris makes a fine unctuous villain. Starts Fri., Jan. 27.

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