My wife never stopped squeezing my hand

I first met Harrison Ford a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. For me, that means the 70's... Yes, that makes me old, but then so is Harrison. Old he may be (as Yoda would say), but has it still he does. Firewall was an exciting film, Harrison commands the screen, and I was genuinely tense, notwithstanding the fact that I have seen this type of film before. However, I must depart from my fellow reviewers on Rottentomatoes, which currently give this film a terrible 17% rating (rotten).

It's not a spoiler to say that the film is about an attempted cyber robbery since the trailers make that clear. What is not in the trailers is how Harrison turns the tables on the criminals, and whether he gets his family back alive. The story is unnecessarily complicated with a sub-plot where the kidnappers try to frame Harrison for the theft. If the money goes to overseas accounts, and they intended to kill Harrison and his family, then why go to the trouble of this elaborate frameup?

What makes a film entertaining is the quality of the characters, not so much the plot (in my humble opinion). Harrison Ford plays a bank security guru who finds himself forced to steal from his own bank to save his kidnapped family. That's not an original idea, but this cast of characters kept me entertained the whole time and I never looked at my watch (my acid test for a good movie).

The movie Co-stars Paul Bettany as the evil mastermind and features Mary Lynn Rajskub as Harrison's personal assistant. Rajskub is also co-star of the TV show "24" and I affectionately refer to her in that role as "the pouty one". --Once again, SKAD13 beat me to an ironic point I was going to make as well, that irony being Rajskub having a another role working for a boss named Jack.

Bettany is very good in the role of a sinister, yet physically disarming character. His "boyish" looks are his trademark. I have seen him in two other films. He left me cold as the love interest in "Wimbleton", but really shined in "A Knight's Tale", especially the memorable walk in the buff down that dirt road. In this one, he demonstrates some inconsistencies though (but this is probably not his fault--blame the script). On the one hand, he seems to try everything to avoid violence against the family he kidnaps,no matter how many times they disobey him, but apparently he has no qualms about shooting his own crew. I believe if he was the cold blooded killer he appears to be, he would certainly have killed at least one of the family members for their failure to cooperate over and over. After all, even if he killed one of the family, he had two others to keep Harrison under his thumb. I think the director just could not bring himself to have any innocent persons die in this film, except for Harrison's friend who worked at the bank and was duped by Bettany to compromise Harrison.

The supporting cast is good enough to make me believe.
Harrison's wife is played by Virginia Madsen, and what makes the film so nerve-racking is the way she really comes across as a mother who cares for her on-screen children (played by Jimmy Bennett and Carly Schroeder). She gave an excellent performance which was at times strong, and at times terrified, but always seeming to be a mother above all. My wife especially liked the scene where Madsen (during the kidnapping) consoles her children in bed by trying to describe happy memories.

Schroeder, who up until recently had only TV roles, portrays a kind of snotty teenage girl who treats her dad with distain. Bennett (who will be seen in the upcoming Poseidon remake) plays the younger brother who suffers from a severe allergy to Peter Pan (the peanut butter, not the flying boy). These two kids don't have big roles, but they play them well and I was convinced of their genuine fear during the kidnapping. I think it helped that I did not know these two before seeing this movie, so I had no pre-conceieved notions about them.

Richard Loncraine is not a name I know, but as director he is quite competent and kept the pace moving along nicely. His opening scenes during the credits really set the mood. We see the surveillance being done on Harrison's family in many insidious forms: a pizza guy at the front door with a hidden camera, putting together shredded documents, filming the family around town... it makes you wonder how often you are being watched in today's world.

There is a pretty realistic fight at the end of the film. Harrison takes a licking but keeps on ticking, but I am betting at his age the stunt double took most of the licks. On that note, his age seems to be working to his advantage, much as it does for Pierce Brosnan (see my review of "The Matador")
http://www.epinions.com/content_219208257156

Lots of commercial plugs in the movie, including a really obvious one using an Ipod to hack into the bank's computers. And you thought you could only download music! And no movie is complete without an animal, and in this case, the family dog leads his master to the hideout in a high tech way.

My only other gripe is the fairytale feel to the very end scene where the family walks together up a dirt road. Besides the fact that Harrison should not have been able to walk at all after his beating, it just looked out of place. I would have shown the family just getting together as the camera pans into a helicoper height shot and we see the police coming in the distance. My wife thinks the end should have included Harrision giving the Ipod back to his daughter, as he promised.

Nevertheless, this is a great movie if you want your significant other to need lots of hugs when you get home, and after all, that's what makes going to the movies so much fun!