The Ledge (2011) (R) ★½

It's not a conflict most of us are new to: the butting heads of an evangelical Christian and an atheist. Of course, Matthew Chapman's thriller, The Ledge, takes this typical opposition and adds a salacious complication: a beautiful woman. Now, with such a ubiquitous conflict, Chapman has lots of room to explore more fully the back and forth between these two schools of thought, but unfortunately the film only skirts that concept and uses it as a more of a means to an end rather than a conversation.

The film focuses on three different men and in that, two different debates. The first pair comes together when one of them threatens to jump to his death from – you guessed it – a ledge. The first man, Officer Hollis (Terrence Howard) finds out his children aren't biologically his right before being called to talk Gavin (Charlie Hunnam) off his perch. Of course, as he finds out, Gavin is on the opposite side of that fence; Hunnam's character not only covets, but sleeps with his neighbor's wife. While this conflict of interest for Howard's character is one of the more interesting aspects of the film, it's overshadowed by the clandestine love affair and a slew of turgid, inconclusive theological discussions.

As Hollis tries desperately to sort out his own demons and get Gavin off the roof, the would-be jumper slowly unravels the details of the romance that landed him there. If he doesn't jump at noon, "someone else" dies. Now, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that "someone else" is Shana (Liv Tyler), the wife of that evangelical Christian neighbor, Joe (Patrick Wilson). Is that enough plot for you? Because it was certainly more than enough for me. As we wind our way through this ambitiously complicated story, we encounter Joe's textbook impenetrable Christian ideals thrown right up against Gavin and his homosexual roommate. Oh yes, the plot tries to get into that debate as well.

The capable cast does its best to bring the hefty, winding story back down to earth and they almost succeed. Hunnam is the weakest of the bunch, but he's really there as a bit of beefcake to tempt Tyler's sheltered character. The real heavyweight here is Wilson, who despite being dealt a fairly narrow character who rattles off the same overzealous discourse we've heard time and again, gives his performance everything he's got. Joe isn't much more than his stalwart religion and his mounting anger, but Wilson tries damn hard to offer just a little something extra. Howard similarly lends weight to his character's story, though it unfortunately becomes little more than an afterthought once the romance between Gavin and Shana gets going.

In fact, that romance is the most enjoyable aspect of the film, even though it begs us to focus on the theological and moral questions at hand. The forbidden love builds awkwardly and organically, something so many films tend to gloss over in order to get to the all-important first kiss. Luckily for many of the big questions that go unanswered in the film, their chemistry carries the plot along and almost manages to distract us from their lack of resolution.

The Ledge seems to be a case of Chapman biting off more than he could chew. Every aspect of the plot is a worthy, intriguing topic, but when they all collide in a mere two-hour period, it's a challenge to give any of the components the attention and depth they really deserve.

Hollywood.com rated this film 1 1/2 stars.