Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
Harrison Ford stars as Jack Stanfield in 'Firewall'. - CONTRIBUTED
FIREWALL HAS much more rain than action and suspense, but still has sufficient of the latter two to make it an engaging watch. It is, however, entertaining enough, largely because of Harrison Ford. Written by Joe Forte and directed by Richard Loncrainem, Firewall is essentially Die Hard with a lot less fast talking and a lot less action.
Of course, as the movie stars Ford rather than a pre-balding Bruce Willis, this is not surprising. Harrison Ford seems to now be running a competition with Sean Connery to be best-old-guy-who-doesn't-quit. Ford might now be gaining ground on Methuselah, but he is still able to command respect on the screen.
In Firewall he gives a fair enough representation of himself. Additionally, he plays the 'good guy forced to fight for his integrity and family' role very well. It also helps that much of this battle is done with his brain, but when his fists come in, they do much appreciated work.
Ford plays Jack Stanfield, a security expert whose family is held hostage to force him to conduct a bank heist. In keeping with our society's technological fascination, this bank robbery takes place in cyberspace (and it's always beautiful how in the movies when you search the Internet the first link you come up with is always the right one).
The role involves a lot of what we like about Ford's characters. It is easy to cheer for him because he stands for all that is right in the world (mainly big business and white suburban America), at least according to Hollywood. Despite Ford's evident age, they even foist two young children, the essential ingredient, on him. And of course Virginia Madsen plays the perfectly loving (and blonde) wife.
Paul Bettany, who is turning into a great 'that guy', even if this is not his best performance to date, plays Ford's nemesis Bill Cox. He is becoming quite reliable for delivering with sufficient aplomb that we can enjoy his role. Additionally, he plays his dumbest criminal alive moment very well. Robert Patrick, on the other hand, is completely underutilised as he has one of the most irrelevant characters in the film.
Most of Firewall depends on creating intrigue as Jack weighs the value of his family against his integrity. Indeed the film is generally well directed, with the interplay of scenes used to good effect to move the story along with speed while holding interest.
However, as the film hurtles toward the end, the action element picks up and shaky cameras and several close-ups are used to increase the intensity of the climax. Furthermore, Firewall's climax is quite worth sitting through the rest of the movie.
