Firewall - Palm Beach Post movie review

'Firewall': Harrison Ford to the rescue... again

By HAP ERSTEIN
Palm Beach Post

Are you paranoid about identify theft? Or is it paranoia if the threat of having your savings wiped out by someone who goes through your trash for bank account numbers is real?

That is pretty much what happens to Jack Stanfield in the new techno-crime thriller Firewall, except he is head of computer security for a Seattle bank, so first his family is held hostage and then the bad guys force him to rob the institution electronically of $100 million. And you thought you were having a bad day?

Warner Brothers Pictures

'Firewall'

B-

The verdict: A standard, though suspenseful, family-hostage thriller, dressed up with technology gimmicks.

Director: Richard Loncraine
Starring: Harrison Ford, Paul Bettany, Jimmy Bennett, Virginia Madsen, Robert Patrick
Run time: 105 minutes
Release date: Feb. 10, 2006
Rating: PG-13 for some intense sequences of violence.
See showtimes

Meet the hero
Austin American-Statesman film writer Chris Garcia interviews Harrison Ford about his roles as an action hero.

On the web
Official movie site
View the trailer
Trailers require Quicktime

Fortunately, Jack is played by America's favorite can-do guy, Harrison Ford, who, even though he is 63, can operate a computer with the speed and savvy of a teenager. Jack's brain goes into overdrive when he learns that no-goodniks have broken into his home, holding his beautiful architect wife (Virginia Madsen, Sideways) and their two kids captive, forcing him to hack into the bank's electronic system for the money.

If only Jack could get his hands on the insides of a fax machine, his daughter's iPod, a picture cellphone, a laptop computer, an electronic transfer port and a global positioning system, all of which he conveniently knows how to use for alternative purposes. And when his plan breaks down — and you just know it will at some point — button-down, borderline nerdy Jack is forced to switch into superhero mode, scaling tall buildings, getting the drop on his designated thug and slugging it out with the cold-blooded mastermind of the heist (Paul Bettany, Master and Commander).

Director Richard Loncraine (Wimbledon, starring Bettany) and first-time screenwriter Joe Forte are way too obsessed with technology, but at least the gadgets lift the movie beyond the realm of the overly familiar. (Memo to Research Dept.: Check whether peanut allergy has ever been used in a film before as a source of child torture.) While Jack's family is bound and trussed at home, he gets to go to his office, because he remains an electronic hostage, with remote surveillance equipment and "cloned" phones. Oh, just play along with it as long as you can.

On the human side of the ledger, Bettany makes a very good — which is to say rotten — villain. We know he means business because he keeps shooting his underling baddies to prove he is tough. He would never actually shoot Jack's wife or kids, you see, because then we really wouldn't like him, so instead he continues eliminating his henchmen.

Ford is considerably less interesting and, of course, he is playing a role we have seen him do often, only a slight variation on the president under siege in Air Force One or either of his Tom Clancy outings.

Madsen is underutilized as the standard issue wife-in-distress, but Mary Lynn Rajskub (TV's 24) gets a career-boosting showcase as Jack's long-suffering, loyal administrative assistant.

Early on, Firewall is aptly creepy, and the cat-and-mouse maneuvers do sustain the suspense. Then, it just becomes awfully silly. Is it in Ford's contract that he will resolve all crises with a burst of macho bravado and not get a single rip in his suit? And why do the bad guys take the family dog along when they abduct the Stanfields and try to make a getaway?