Firewall
Directed by: Richard Loncraine
Starring: Harrison Ford, Virginia Madsen, Paul Bettany, Jimmy Bennett, Carly Schroeder
Rated: PG-13 for some intense sequences of violence.
Parental Notes: The violence in the film is sporadic but sufficiently graphic to be too intense for most youngsters. The children-in-peril situation and the home invasion scenes may also be too intense for young children. Mature preteens and teenagers will probably be fine.
One of the disadvantages to being a movie reviewer is that one sees so many movies each year. When a movie like “Firewall” comes along, it’s hard to really get into it when you’ve seen the same sort of film many times before. It’s an oft-used structure: the bad guys hold the good guy’s family hostage and force him to do something very difficult; the good guy finds a way to outsmart the bad guys and put everything right. 2005’s “Red Eye” was one of these, but the genre goes back to films like “Escape from New York” and beyond.
“Firewall” follows the attempts of Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford, “Hollywood Homicide”) to outwit Bill Cox (Paul Bettany, “Wimbledon”). Bill is holding Jack’s family hostage — his wife Beth (Virginia Madsen, “Sideways”) and kids Andy (Jimmy Bennett, “The Amityville Horror”) and Sarah (Carly Schroeder, “We All Fall Down”). Bill wants to steal a great deal of money from the bank where Jack works as the head of network security, and he needs Jack’s help to do it. Jack is primarily concerned with his family’s safety, and cooperates at first, but when it becomes clear that just doing what Bill wants may not get all of them out of his clutches safely, Jack turns all his attention to outwitting Bill and rescuing his family.
It’s not a new story, but it’s well-executed. Like most movies out of Hollywood these days, the production values are spectacular and the rest of the film is competent but not original. The acting is workmanlike without being cliched. Harrison Ford delivers a solid performance as a man pushed beyond his limits and Paul Bettany gets to lay the bad guy for once and seems to relish it. Virginia Madsen makes Beth brave and intelligent within the limitations of the script, and even the kids do a decent job.
The script is fairly clever, and the stunts are good. Director Richard Loncraine (“Wimbledon”, “Richard III”) relies a little too heavily on jiggly hand-held camera closeups, but he has brought his experience in both high drama and comedy to the film. There are plenty of small, clever attemts made by Jack and his family to get out of their predicament, which is a pleasant change from takes on the plot in which the hero is helpless for most of the film.
Unfortunately, the film suffers from a number of plot holes and lapses in logic. Although it’s not really necessary for a thriller to be completely plausible, when it’s already not very original it can be frustrating to a viewer who has seen this sort of thing too many times already. “Firewall” is a film that should only be seen if you’re in the mood to be entertained and don’t mind having to suspend your disbelief a great deal. Folks who have seen a lot of films of this sort or who are looking for more intellectual stimulation will probably be better served elsewhere.