Charlie  Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy) plays Gavin, a man who begins an affair with Shana, played by Liv Tyler (Lord of the Rings), wife of Gavin’s Evangelical neighbor, played by Patrick Wilson (Watchmen, Little Children). When the movie opens we find Gavin on the ledge of a building preparing to jump to his death. Enter Hollis Lucetti, played by Terrance Howard (Iron Man 2, Hustle & Flow), a detective whose had a bit of a shocking morning as well, having just found out that he’s sterile, always has been, and that he is not the father of his two children. Hollis is trying to keep it together while talking Gavin down from the ledge, but there is something more sinister keeping Gavin in place.

Let me be straight forward and just say that the film is a flop, in my opinion. Matthew Chapman (Runaway Jury, The Color of Night), who both writes and directs the film, attempts to pitch belief and non-belief against one another as a catalyst for the goings on in the film. Gavin is a non-believer while Joe (Patrick Wilson) is an avid believer who attempts to converse with Gavin several times about God and faith. Unfortunately the conversations between the two are the same old boring debate questions and answers we begin to formulate when we are in our school years: If God Exists why do bad things happen to good people? If you have to accept Christ as your savior in order to avoid hell what does that mean for foreign people who have their own belief systems, and are they wrong? There’s nothing new or exhilarating tossed into the mix nor is there any kind of metaphorical tie in that would bring the questions to some untouched upon heights that would make them interesting in any way. As a matter of fact the actors, all except Patrick Wilson, who unfortunately represents an extreme version of a believer to an almost laughable extent, fail at having discussions of religion, as if their pitching their lines with very little conviction. Between Liv Tyler and Charlie Hunnam I haven’t seen acting this wooden since Phantom Menace.

You know you’ve watched a fantastic film when at the end you find yourself extremely angry at a character or the film itself. It’s at these moments when you realize that the magic of cinema has happened and that it has effected you in such a way that its made a connection that evokes emotion from you, even when you know that its all made up. An another unfortunate occurrence with The Ledge is that it simply folds up under its own weight. It reveals all of these horrible things to you and attempts to persuade you that they or the people who have acted upon them are worthy of your empathy. By the end of the film though it all just kind of goes limp and takes the easy out. When all is said and done your expected to just accept the outcome of the film and the situations of its characters as a kind of “life goes on” type thing. That’s simply laziness and poor writing. I felt like the point of Patrick Wilson’s character was to show you that no matter how much someone appears to have faith and understanding, in the end were all just human and weak to our animalistic tendencies when situations out of our control occur. To end the film on a shrug is like not ending the film at all. I left the film angry but not because it drew me in. Not one I would recommend.

QUALITY:
The Ledge is a decent BD transfer. I read that the film was made on a shoestring budget and that its an indie film which is why so many people have given it a pass for being so bland in the color and location department. The film had a budget of ten million dollars. That’s ten million US dollars. When Sam Raimi made his iconic Evil Dead film for $375,000, that was a shoestring budget. When Robert Rodriguez filmed El Mariachi for $220,000 that was a shoestring budget. Ten million? Please. In any case the film carries a halfway decent HD picture. Objects and people in the forefront of the picture look sharp and very clear but background objects and people are a blur. The fact that Chapman directed the scenes like this makes me believe he’s a bit out of touch with the new filming technology. There is a bit of aliasing (see Hunnam’s pin striped suit) and a small amount of light flicker on the bottom left hand corner of your screen when the film opens. Color, as I said, is pretty bland. Liv Tyler’s eyes stand out in the picture and facial flaws really stand out (pimples, wrinkles, dry skin). I assume all of this attributes to Chapman attempting to offer up the most realism he could for the film which pulls no effects punches or anything.

Audio is clear with every robotic utterance between Hunnam and Tyler coming through very nicely, even though Tyler spends most of the film whisper talking. Other then that, like the picture, there are no effects to offer up a full spectrum listening experience. Its all basic straight forward front heavy dialogue. I don’t even recall a soundtrack to the film.

BONUS FEATURES:
~Trailer
~Interviews: Cast, Director/Writer, Producers.