"Vantage Point" is one of those intriguing films whose whole is less than the sum of its parts. Nonetheless, while admittedly more form than substance, most of you are likely to enjoy its bumpy ride.

"Vantage Point" tells the tale of an apparent assassination of an American President who is appearing at an anti-terrorism conference in Salamanca, Spain. The compelling feature of the film is that it relives a one-half hour time period (12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.) from the viewpoints of various participants and witnesses in the shooting of the President. Ironically, it is the very fact that the exact same scene is revisited from different points of view that gives this movie its freshness and thematic allure.

It is giving nothing away to say this movie pulls a reverse "Dave" (1993), in that it is the President's stand-in double who gets shot. The wonderful William Hurt plays both the President and his double, and any movie having him on screen is all the better for it.

It is equally ironic that the strength of this film lies with the performances of the actors playing the terrorists. While clearly repellant on one hand, their fanatical dedication to a cause that justifies human slaughter becomes strangely understandable. Quite frankly, I found myself having an emotional reaction frequently experienced in a Quentin Tarantino film, namely being attracted to the very people that revolted me.

On the flipside, the normally reliable Dennis Quaid was ill served in his role as a secret service agent still suffering the emotional scars of previously being shot while saving the President. In nearly every scene he appears with a forced grimace that seems as artificial as it is contrived. Simply put, director Pete Travis made a tragic mistake having Quaid's superficially wooden agent being designated as the movie's hero and savior.

While I clearly won't insult anyone by giving away the ending, suffice it to say that it just failed to deliver. It was too intellectually cute, and as a result seemed contrived and artificial.

This is all the more unfortunate as "Vantage Point," in the immortal words of Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront" (1954), "could have been a contender." For example, both "Cloverfield" and "I Am Legend" had a visceral connection with the audience precisely because the central characters that we rooted for died in the end. This movie would have been far better off had Mr. Travis had the courage to let the terrorists win this one fight.