The Ledge [Blu-Ray]

Up-and-coming writer/director Matthew Chapman succeeds at capturing the attention of filmgoers early on with his thriller's promising premise and B-list cast, but The Ledge fails to engage past its glossy, artificial appearance. The film quickly introduces viewers to Gavin (Charlie Hunnam), a seemingly happy-go-lucky atheist hotel manager who's standing on the ledge of a building and has to jump at noon in order to prevent Joe (Patrick Wilson), a psychotic bible thumper, from killing his damsel in distress wife, Shauna (Liv Tyler), who Gavin is also having an affair with. When a down-on-his-luck detective (Terrence Howard) is called in to play negotiator, Gavin then spends 90 minutes cracking jokes and nonchalantly telling the detective (from the ledge of the building nonetheless) how he got in this situation. What starts out as a Sunday afternoon guilty pleasure quickly takes a downward spiral into a screenwriter's vanity project about religion and philosophy. There are so many pretentious and poorly written debates about religion, homosexuality and the afterlife that anyone with half a brain will turn off the film after one of Gavin and Joe's many heated, aggravating debates. Also, Gavin and Shauna's relationship lacks any chemistry and unfortunately, most of the film focuses on their cock-teasing moments. Viewers will also feel less empathetic for Gavin's dilemma after learning he planned to seduce Shauna to save her from the misery of living with her religious fanatic husband, because after all, women just need a man to lead them to salvation, right? The Ledge may be mildly captivating due to Terrence Howard's soap opera-like sub plot and Patrick Wilson's entertaining overacting skills, but just like Gavin, you will feel like jumping off something high up before the film is over. The Blu-Ray extras feature poorly shot and unedited interviews of the cast and crew.