"Firewall" is the type of movie that could easily satisfy the action/thriller buff, and rightfully so; there are plenty of suspenseful, nail biting moments for all to experience. And I'm sure a lot of people will be enticed by its almost universal structure. It's basically a heist movie, the only difference being that twenty-first century technology is at its disposal. The fact that we live in a computer driven society is used to the fullest, pretty much to the point of flaunting it. It's now unnecessary to present physical money: bundles of green bills wrapped with paper strips are nowhere to be found; the black leather bag to stuff the money into is also missing. It's all digitally processed, with a series of pin numbers and codes being all that's needed to access account information. And this time around, a robbery entails the mere pushing of a laptop keyboard button. No guns, ski masks, or crowbars are required.

And yet, despite the technological upgrades, it's still just your run of the mill bank robbery story: unoriginal, at times highly implausible, and always completely predictable. I suppose that may be an unfair assessment, and the truth is I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting going into this movie. Maybe I just wanted the drama and action to unfold in fresher ways. But that's probably asking too much; heist films of the past have been so formulaic that certain expectations have been permanently ingrained into our collective subconscious.

Harrison Ford stars as Jack Stanfield: a security specialist for a small bank branch in Seattle. Right as the movie starts, we are given glimpses into his life (some of which are mysteriously viewed through a telephoto lens). He and his architect wife, Beth (Virginia Madsen), live the typical upper class suburbanite life with their children, Sarah and Andrew (Carly Schroeder and Jimmy Bennett). We see them in the morning, just as Stanfield is leaving for work. Automatic pleasantries are shared, the kids squabble over nothing (Sarah goes so far as to address her father by his first name), and Stanfield kisses his wife goodbye. We even see some average encounters at the office, the most prominent ones occurring between Stanfield and his secretary, Janet (Mary Lynn Rajskub).

Some may view this type of introduction as uninteresting; indeed, the opening does lack some of the conventional attention grabbers. But when the events of the robbery are set into motion later on in the film, it becomes clear why the beginning was so bland: it was the only way to make the shock of the unfolding crime seem more intense.

Eventually Stanfield is introduced to Bill Cox (Paul Bettany), the man in charge of planning the entire robbery. It starts out innocently enough when Cox poses as another bank executive looking to make a deal (while faking an American accent). But Stanfield is unaware that a band of Cox's henchmen have already broken into his home and taken his family hostage. That's when Stanfield sees Cox's camera phone, displaying a picture of Sarah screaming. "She has lovely eyes, your daughter," Cox says coldly (dropping the American accent). It's the first in a series of events indicating that Cox has definitely done his homework. That's when the demands are made: if Stanfield wishes to see his family alive again, then he must break into the bank's system and rewire a certain amount of money into Cox's personal account.

I suppose you now see what I mean about this being pretty unoriginal. But that's only the start of the film's problems, not the least of which are the moments between the Stanfield family and Cox's team of computer geeks and hit men. Beth and the kids were tied up and gagged at gunpoint, and their lives are verbally threatened on more than one occasion. I figured this would be enough to instill uncontrollable fear in them. But apparently it wasn't; after the initial shock wears off, they go about the house seemingly oblivious to the danger they're in. The kids play games and Beth prepares meals. They're all allowed to sleep in the comfort of the master bedroom (granted; they're being supervised through a surveillance camera). There are even some friendly moments shared between Andrew and Cox. Call me crazy, but is this really the behavior you'd expect from people whose lives are on the line? I don't know; I guess I was expecting the drama to go a little further than that.

I was also turned off by the inclusion of Robert Patrick as the bank's new boss (the old boss being Alan Arkin). His part was introduced well enough, especially since there's some uncomfortable friction between him and Stanfield. But as the plot ensued, his presence, along with his significance, decreased dramatically. By the end of the film, I suspected his character was included only as an afterthought (but to what avail, I have no idea).

Fans of Harrison Ford will find him enjoyable, and he certainly did seem quite comfortable playing this role. It's really no wonder; the number of action films he's been in had long ago pushed him into the category of Typecast Actor. I tend to think that as long as there's a breath left in his body, he'll continue to be offered these kinds of roles. That might be a problem, considering his performance in "Firewall." His delivery was flat and his voice was monotone throughout the film; not even the threat of losing his family seemed to be enough to get a decent rise out of him. Maybe he was a little too comfortable playing Jack Stanfield. Maybe he's a little too comfortable in action films altogether.

This isn't a bad film by any means, but it's nothing to write home about, either. Yes, it was quite interesting to watch a present day bank robbery in action (and the fact that the technology behind it was completely beyond me only heightened my interest). But I would have liked it if the characters' emotional responses were a little more realistic. I also would have liked the basic premise to not be so cookie cutter, following the patterns and copying the outcomes of all the old-fashioned bank robber films. That, above all things, was what made "Firewall" difficult to sit through. I can only hope that future heist films are made with some degree of story originality. Maybe then it would be worth paying the local theater's ticket price.

- Chris Pandolfi

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