The Ledge review

            The set-up for The Ledge is captivating, so much that it actually sets up the audience for certain disappointment when the reveal doesn’t live up to the mystery. Despite good acting and an engaging beginning, The Ledge ends up just being a sad and predictable crime melodrama told out of order. No matter how great a film’s beginning may be, it is the end which is the last thing remembered before walking out of the theater, and The Ledge seems to be punishing the audience with its last few sequences.

            The film begins as a man walks out onto the ledge of a building, with the intention of jumping. Detective Hollis (Terrence Howard) is sent to talk the man down, despite having his own family issues haunting him. As Hollis talks to the man on the ledge, it becomes clear that he is being forced to jump. His name is Gavin (Charlie Hunnam from TV’s “Sons of Anarchy”) and he unfolds a story for Hollis which seems unlikely to ever get to the point.

            The story involves Gavin and his new neighbor and co-worker (Liv Tyler). Immediately having a connection with this woman he doesn’t even know, Gavin becomes determined to win her over even though she is already married to a religious nut (Patrick Wilson). Believing Gavin to be a homosexual, the religious neighbor invites him to dinner to pray for his sins. This begins a long battle between the two men, with the wife in the middle. All of this eventually leads to the set-up, and it ends up being far less complex than we are led to believe originally.