Film Review: Firewall (2006) B-

Date Viewed: 6/19/06
Venue: DVD

Harrison Ford returns to the big screen to make up for 2003’s atrocious Hollywood Homicide with Firewall, a thriller that also stars Paul Bettany (as the heavy) and Viriginia Madsen (as the wife). I had heard many mediocre things about this film upon its theatrical release, but it’s really not THAT bad.

Set in Seattle(!), Firewall has Ford playing the IT computer security manager for a small regional chain of banks. He’s got a smart, attractive wife, two kids, and an amazing home with stunning views. All this is put in peril when Paul Bettany and his crew of thugs (whose menace varies widely from thug to thug) take the family hostage in exchange for Ford’s help in robbing his own bank.

Despite the technological trappings, this is a very standard thriller, complete with the standard logic lapses and occasional plot holes. Too much of the first half is devoted to ‘computer-tension,’ where traditional action or chase scenes are replaced with people frantically typing on keyboards…will Hollywood ever figure out this is never suspenseful? And this is also the second straight thriller I’ve seen (Derailed being the other) where our villain is European and can switch accents at the drop of a hat. Is this some kind of modern-day American xenophobia at play? Probably not, but its an interesting thought.

Performances are decent, Bettany’s evil enough, Madsen does well with very little to work with, and Ford actually looks interested and coherent, which is a refreshing change these days, although I just can’t buy him talking about servers, hackers, and the like. I somehow don’t think Harrison is setting up wireless networks at home or anything.

The film really seems to get going once Ford has turned the tables and begins to hunt down his tormentors, that’s where I could actually see the Harrison Ford of yore. The 1980s cooler-than-cool Harrison Ford. Despite the film’s many flaws, just seeing that again made everything alright.