Between the Academy Awards nominations, which were announced last week, and the awards - which air at the end of this month - the big push in movie theaters across the country is to screen the most acclaimed nominees.

Right now, the world is buzzing the most about "The Artist," "War Horse" and "The Descendants," which is why movie studios looking to debut new stories are aiming to place genre projects with established audience bases. There are more than enough romantic comedies and horror films in release right now, and "Man on a Ledge" arrives with the promise of a thriller - a police procedural that will keep you guessing.

Setting aside "Haywire" for a moment - which I personally believe is a far better thriller - what’s most disappointing about "Man on a Ledge" is how quickly the story’s conceit fizzles into a confusing series of double and triple-crosses.

At the center of it all is Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington), a one-time cop who has gone to jail as a jewel thief. He was convicted of going against David Englander (Ed Harris), of stealing David’s prized Monarch Diamond and after spending two years in the "big house," he’s broken out of jail and checked himself into a Manhattan hotel.

The police respond en masse when he climbs out onto a ledge, threatening to jump. But his real goal is not to go out in a blaze of glory, but to play decoy - to divert attention away from the jewel heist that’s happening across the street, orchestrated by Nick’s brother (Jamie Bell).

It’s a real-time standoff with high stakes - Nick hopes that his brother is able to make a discovery that will prove his innocence. But in order to buy his comrades in arms the time they need, he needs to somehow avoid capture, and prolong the standoff.

As far as Nick Cassidy is concerned, it’s a smart strategy. Delay and divide. But as a filmmaking and dramatic strategy, it is the antithesis of thrilling.

At the heart of "Man on a Ledge" is a melodramatic standoff, where one character tries to remain perched out of reach, and where another is conducting a robbery in secret. When the climax fails to raise the stakes, and when the acting remains fixed at a single, hyper tense pitch, it becomes clear that "Man on a Ledge" is a thriller stuck in neutral.

Those who enjoy plotting and strategy will likely warm to its bait-and-switch approach, but by the lackluster third act, I started to feel as if this was a thriller with a lot of shouting and movement but possessing almost nothing at its core.

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