Sophisticated
thieves hold a family hostage and force a bank security expert to help them
steal. A decent premise gives way to dull conventionality.
Harrison Ford is a bank’s
computer security expert. One day, armed men take his wife and young kids
hostage so he’ll help them steal. In the most suspenseful scenes, he’s forced
to pretend to his coworkers that everything’s okay. Meanwhile, the family
hunkers down. The boy innocently makes friends with the bad guy (Paul Bettany).
Virginia Madsen, who could play Ford’s daughter but plays his wife, tries to
stir things up by telling one of the nicer bad guys that Bettany plans to kill
him. (You never get to find out if this is true, though.) Bettany, an excellent
actor, helps make the villain interesting. In this kind of film, that he
doesn’t actually enjoy dishing out violence (though willing to do so) counts as
novelty. But, finally, Firewall is yet another Hollywood thriller
rendered dull by rigid adherence to formula. You know this formula. For
example, you won’t be too worried that, when the killer threatens to maim one
of the kids, he’ll actually do so. It would have been intriguing to see the IT
guy use his computer skills to outsmart the bad guys, but convention requires
that physicality be the solution to all problems. (At least we see that, not
being Indiana Jones, the hero does get a bit winded at times.) So, we have an
old guy, his architect wife, and two kids against well-trained young men with
guns. Gotta be obvious who wins that one.
posted 9/15/13
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