THIS dramatic thriller is the creation of two big-screen first-timers, director Asger Leth and Venezuelan writer Pablo F Fenjves. And it shows.

A man escapes from prison in New York State. Soon we see him checking into a downtown hotel and insisting on a room on a particular floor and corner. After breakfast, he climbs on to the ledge outside his window. And New Yorkers enjoy few diversions from their hum-drum lives more than the prospect of somebody taking a high dive toward a splat on the pavement.

The man leaves a note, saying he is innocent. Of what? We learn why he is in no hurry to jump and why he insists that a particular female detective get the task of negotiating his return to a safe place.

Sam Worthington plays Nick the jumper. Elizabeth Banks is Lydia the detective. For much of the film Lydia leans out the window talking to Nick on the ledge 21 floors up from an intersection jammed by gawkers and emergency services people and vehicles.

Moderate tensions lead to a revelation of things not what they first seemed. Cops wearing body armour and brandishing rifles do action stuff. We’ve seen it all before, done better. Pity.

At Hoyts and  Limelight