DVD Reviews

Firewall

• Rating:
• Director: Richard Loncraine
• Starring: Harrison Ford
• Details: US, 105mins, 15s.

Jack Stanfield (Ford) is a computer security specialist who works for a small yet growing Seattle-based bank. A top-ranking executive, Jack has a reputation for designing the most effective anti-theft computer systems in the industry and this affluent job allows for the designer house that his architect wife Beth (Madsen) designed. But his quiet life is disturbed when a team of high-tech bank robbers invade his house and hold his wife and kids hostage. Their ruthlessly cold leader, Bill Cox (Bettany), who meticulously went about finding out everything about Jack and his family, proposes a deal to Jack - transferring money from the bank's wealthy accounts to his offshore account in exchange for his family. Keeping Jack under surveillance via tiny cameras and mics hidden about his person, Cox and his team wait for Jack to transfer the money, but the reserved Jack won't take it lying down.
Lying down might have been a good idea for Harrison Ford as the man looks old, awkward and cumbersome in this uninspired action thriller. Even though the film itself is lacking any thrust or momentum, Ford's lethargic performance suggests that he maybe finished as a major Hollywood player and this doesn't bode well for those looking forward to the forthcoming Indiana Jones film. This is perhaps a little unfair to Ford, but Firewall proves that if he isn't in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon or cracking a whip at some Nazi's, there isn't a lot he can offer. He isn't helped by the poor direction of Wimbledon helmer Richard Loncraine whose scenes of supposedly gripping tension barely muster a shy goose pimple while the viewer is left guessing 'what's Ford trying to do now?' or 'when is this over?' Various subplots raise their heads (Cox's setting up of Beth's supposed infidelity, Jack's gambling debt) but all come and go without resolution. Firewall couldn't be duller if Norah Jones wore a Bill Cosby sweater.

Review by Gavin Burke