Relentlessly Good Movie with a Great Cast
It has been almost a decade since Harrison Ford’s incredible Air Force One. Any devoted fan could lose faith after any two of his last few movies; Hollywood Homicide, Random Hearts, [gasp] Six Days Seven Night? They were all good enough and enjoyable, but I find it seriously hard to recall much about them. K-19 may have been the best acting of Ford’s career, but did anyone besides me go see it? Not according to the box office numbers.

I was not looking forward to Firewall. The trailer did nothing to hook me beyond the standard editing and music we are all used to. I was pretty worried about this whole security thing. Hollywood is notorious for disregarding computers and technology in favor of trite, plot-necessary word-slinging that tends to piss off people that know something about computers. Maybe the statistical correlation between computer users and movie goers has not shown up on their charts yet. I suspect it will soon, but if I have to watch one more person move a gazillion gigabytes of data on to a floppy disk…

For my last stab at negativity, I’ll simply add that I hate the title. I hated it going in and still loathe the choice after seeing the movie. But like I said, that is the end of my negativity. It has been almost a decade since Air Force One and this movie puts Harrison Ford right back in the game. He wears his age well and was perfectly cast – though I have a feeling the movie and role were probably written with him in mind (I wasn’t able to find reference to that anywhere at the time of this writing) – as Jack Stanfield, the hands-on, head of security for a mid-sized bank in the process of being merged in to a larger one.

The story was taut; the movie was tightly edited, and achieved some levels of tension and suspense I have not experienced in the theater in a long time. The plot was woven and crafted in a way that let it fall apart before your eyes with believability. As he always does so naturally, Ford’s character does the things we think we would want to do as we watch the situations unfold. We see in his face the compelling will to hold it together and think it through and jump at the next opportunity – just like we know we would do given the chance. Unlike his other movies, Ford takes his character a lot closer to losing it than I think we have seen before. That really added to the movie in a way that made the bad guys seem that much more real and ultimately more charismatically sinister. Paul Bettany even contributed a twisted little run of apathy that just wound the coil of vengeance that much tighter. It was so enjoyable to see all the well laid plans fall apart and still have the movie target the imminent final showdown with precision.

They did a great job with the plot and I highly appreciated the smart, believable use of computers and technology throughout film. Firewall is not art, but it is a blockbuster-caliber movie that has a powerful emotional impact. This is a thrilling ride through action, tension and suspense and simply does not disappoint. I walked out of the theater feeling good. Not only had Jack Stanfield triumphed against all the odds, but Harrison Ford delivered. I slept really well!

Synopsis of Firewall (2006)
Saw it: Friday, February 11, 2006
Reviewed: Saturday, February 12, 2006
Did I like it? Yes
Does it qualify as “classic”? No
Do I want to see it again in the theater? Yes
Worth seeing on the big screen? Yes
Do I want to own the DVD? Yes
Should there be a sequel? No

Final Thought?
One of the keys to this movie having such a stirring emotional impact, was the outstanding cast. Though Robert Forster had very little screen time, it was a delight to see him play the buddy role so perfectly. Mary Lynn Rajskub put in an excellent, quirky, and engrossing piece of acting as Jack Stanfield’s assistant. Robert Patrick has been on a roll lately, he played Johnny Cash’s father in Walk the Line and in Firewall he was determined and even formidable as Ford’s counterpart. Virginia Madsen even surprised me by being dynamic and deeply in character.