It is high noon on a gorgeous day in Salamanca, Spain. A huge throng of people have gathered in a plaza surrounded by high-rise residential buildings. The motorcade approaches. The president of the United States ascends to the podium. Shots ring out, a bomb explodes and chaos ensues.

This scenario is replayed six times from the perspective of different individuals.

Sigourney Weaver kicks things off as the producer of the television broadcast on Global Network News. Dennis Quaid (“The Day After Tomorrow”) plays a Secret Service agent heading the detail assigned to safeguard the president for this landmark summit concerning new anti-terrorist measures. He took a bullet for the president six months ago and has just returned to active duty.

Academy Award-winner Forest Whitaker (“The Last King of Scotland”) plays an American tourist looking for excitement who captures the events on his hand-held camcorder.

Other cast members include William Hurt (“A History of Violence”) as the president and Matthew Fox ( ABC’s “Lost”) as Quaid’s partner and fellow Secret Service agent.

The Spanish-speaking participants in this well-orchestrated, four-pronged terrorist attack are slowly revealed over the course of the 90-minute running time. If you can get over the repetition of the play, pause and rewind cycle, this movie builds to an exciting and suspenseful conclusion. There is a foot chase of a suspected perpetrator that whets your appetite in the middle of the picture. A rock ’em, sock ’em, high-speed car chase is the signature moment in the concluding frames.

Each segment progresses the story a little further along as the pieces of the puzzle ultimately fit together.

Barry L. Levy makes his mark with an impressive screenwriting debut. He was a religious school teacher at a Jewish temple in Los Angeles when he sold his script to the studio.

Except for some shaky camera work, the cinematography is sharp and bright. The soundtrack pumps up the volume at the right opportunities.

This action-packed thriller with its controversial terrorist-based subject matter combines the narrative style of Akira Kurosawa’s Japanese classic “Rashomon” with the replay approach taken by the successful comedy hit “Groundhog Day.”

Partially in Spanish with English subtitles.

Review By:
Keith Cohen, The Movie Guy