Family of the Week: Will Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Jaden, and Willow
Posted on July 1, 2008 at 8:00 am
Will Smith likes to joke that he owns the 4th of July, and it is true that he starred in two of the hugest hits to open on the 4th, “Men in Black” and “Independence Day.” He’s hoping to do it again this week with “Hancock,” but he’s going up some competition in his own house. His daughter Willow co-stars in the American Girls movie, “Kit Kittredge,” also opening this week. Like her big brother Jaden, who co-starred with his dad in “The Pursuit of Happyness,” Willow has all of the grace, charm, charisma, and screen-holding naturalness of both of her parents, and a sensational smile. Smith may just have to share his big date this year.
A gimmicky thriller without much of a gimmick or many thrills, “Vantage Point” suffers, too, from being out of synch with its time. Its premise may be current — an assassination attempt at an anti-terrorism summit — but its tone is off. A good thriller — or even a good episode of “Law and Order” — uncovers our underlying fears, recognizes that they are closely tied to curiosity, and pushes them to the point of pleasurable fear and cathartic release. This film clumsily builds on the headlines with a simplistic story that, even told in mosaic bits and pieces is obvious and clunky, with big logical gaps. It would be more intriguing to see the same story told several times from different perspectives, each one adding another layer of information, if the underlying story was worthwhile. But this story of a terrorist attack at an anti-terrorism summit, is too thin to withstand the repetition. Instead of making it deeper and more complex, the retellings get tiresome and overblown.