The
Sum of All Fears
Reviews
by : Kyle
DuVall Gareth Von Kallenbach
Starring:
Ben Affleck, Morgan Freeman, James Cromwell
Directed by: Phil Alden Robinson
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The premise of The Sum Of All Fears
is one that was old hat even in the 1960's when Sean Connery's
007 was sipping martinis as James Bond. Sum is about
a terrorist group that builds a nuclear bomb and smuggles
it into the US in an attempt to spark a war between the US
and Russia.
As a film made in 2002 and not 1962, Sum makes two
concessions to novelty. The first concession is that it is
an adaption of one of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels. This
means the "action" that takes place in Sum is a more
realistic brand of spy-jinks than those of 007. Bungee jumping,
alpine ski-chases and scuba diving are pushed aside for paper
shuffling, and frantic e-mailing. Bulletproof cars and ball-point
pens that shoot napalm are replaced by cell-phones, palm pilots
and real-life spy satellites.
The second twist, one which is all too obviously revealed
in Sum's marketing is that, in The Sum of All Fears,
the good guys don't actually stop the terrorist plot to detonate
an A-bomb, so about an hour into the movie, it's bye bye Baltimore.
Thus, while the first half revolves around uncovering the
plan, the film's second half revolves around junior CIA analyst
Jack Ryan's (Ben Affleck) frantic attempts to contact the
president and prevent World War 3.
Despite these new spins on this old cold-war paradigm, director
Phil Alden Robinson's adaption falls short of its aims. Sum
suffers from very poor plotting in its third act and a general
lack of suspense throughout that has as much to do with an
ill-conceived marketing campaign as it does with directorial
missteps or weaknesses in the screenplay. Sum has an interesting
premise and some good performances from the supporting cast,
but it's never as smart or as tense as it needs to be.
Sum is
structured two distinct narratives, each worthy in concept
of a movie in and of itself. The first narrative follows Ryan
as he rises in the CIA and uncovers a terrorist plot. Ryan
starts as an anonymous desk-jockey, but when a Russian official
whom he has researched becomes the Russian premier in an electoral
coup, Ryan finds himself rubbing elbows and advising some
of the highest officials in the US government. Ryan quickly
goes from the CIA version of dilbert to the protege of CIA
dirctor Bill Cabot (morgan freman). Soon, he's meeting with
the joint chiefs of staff and going to white house dinners
with the CIA elite and When he is assigned to tag along with
Cabot to inspect Russian nuclear disarmament facilities, Ryan
and company discover 3 high-placed Russian scientists are
missing, three scientists who, together, could build their
own bomb.
Meanwhile,
in Syria, an Arab salvager has sold the chassis of a defunct
nuclear bomb to a neo-nazi terrorist group lead by Richard
Dressler (Alan Bates). You don't need to be a CIA analyst
or even jerry Bruckheimer to put 2 and 2 together at this
point. With the help of the dissident scientists, these goosesteppers,
under the leadership of Dressler, are clearly building their
own nuke.. The diabolical fascists want to use the bomb to
set off world war 3, a plan right out of Ian Fleming. "Hitler
wasn't crazy" says Dressler, who's spectre-like plan makes
you think he should be stroking a white Persian cat. "He was
stupid. Why fught Russia and the US when you can make them
fight each other?"
The Arab
extremists who were the novel's villains were re-tooled into
neo-fascists long before 9-11, and the film definitely suffers
for the change. Dressler is a villain who seems a bit too
removed form the realistic political landscape of the rest
of the film. Dressler is a villain who wears fine clothes
instead of Dr. No inspired jumpsuits, and he lives in a mansion
filled with artwork and fine furniture instead of an underground
labyrinth but, Nevertheless, his super-villainish ravings
and monomaniacal plotting still leave you wondering when he's
going to finally capture Ben Affleck and point a high-powered
laser at his crotch.
The first
half of Sum is cleverly structured to build tension. The extent
of Dressler's secret terrorist plot is made clear to the audinec
pretty early, but Ryan and company still remain in the dark
so Sum's first half hinges on the suspense that comes from
watching Ryan, Cabot, and a shadowy field agent named Clark
(Liv Schrieber) try to figure out things the audience already
knows in time to save the world. The film's pacing and screenplay
does a good job of keeping the terrorists' plot just one grab
out of reach of the heroes, but, thanks to trailers and commercials
that give away far too much of Sum's plot, we still already
know what's going to happen.
Sum's
marketing and ads make it clear that Baltimore is basically
toast. We know Ryan isn't going to be able to put all the
pieces together fast enough, so even with some solid scenes
between Cabot and Ryan, and some well- executed cloak-and-daggering
by schrieber's clark, The first narrative is ultimayely sterile.
It's a movie within a movie where we already know the ending,
but Robinson seems to have structured the film as if he was
depending on the outcome to be a potent secret. A plot element
that should be shocking to audiences accustomed to the good
guys always winning in the nick of time becomes expected and
inevitable. The detonation of an atomic bomb on American soil,
an act which should have even more resonance in today's geopolitical
climate, is just another plot point in another spy-thriller,
and what could have been a classic surprise twist is nearly
neutered.
Once the
bomb goes off, Sum's second narrative begins. As the President
of the United States (James Cromwell) and his cabinet are
trying to figure out whether or not the Russians are behind
the bombing, Ryan is running around Baltimore, frantically
trying to get proof that terrorists were behind it and get
the information to the president before he initiates global
thermonuclear war.
This last
hour of Sum is a textbook example of a film where a lot goes
on, yet nothing really happens. Ryan dashes from one location
to another trying to call the president, while the president
and his staffers argue back and forth about whether or not
to press the button. The plot elements always seem to be moving,
the people on-screen are always in a state of excitement and
it should all be highly dramatic, suspenseful stuff, but,
for the most part, the events in Sum's second half are exercises
in prolonging the suspenseful elements in the film rather
than building or developing them, and most of the obstacle
in Ryan's way as he rushes to straighten out the president
seem very contrived.
For example,
Ryan actually gets the proof he needs to show that the bomb
was built by terrorists pretty quick thanks to an on-site
disaster assessment team who analyze the plutonium fallout
of the blast. For some reason that is never clearly explained,
this assessment team has no direct link to anyone who can
relay the info to the president. Ryan uses their communications
network to talk to some of his budies at the CIA, but none
of them seem to have an ability to talk to the presidential
staff either. It begs the question: if the assessment team
can't talk to anybody important, why is there an assessment
team at all.
This forces
Ryan to try and find Cabot who, despite being in the same
car as the rescued President at the time of the explosion,
has been inexplicably "lost". Of course, when Cabot does turn
up Ryan still can't get in touch with the right people and,
thanks to Ebert's proverbial "idiot plot syndrome", the people
he does contact ignore him.
Ryan's
frustrations then send him off in a stolen car through disaster
torn Baltimore. In these sequences, Robinson seems to be throwing
us an action bone, attempting to give some real action to
those underwhelmed by the film's incessant cell-phone slinging
and paper-shuffling. Ryan's odyssey through a Baltimore wasteland
shot in vague, tight shots that never really drive home the
"disaster area" status of the Baltimore setting, is a sequence
that almost becomes something reminiscent of an exciting car
chase. It ends with Ryan running into a parked car and furiously
trying to unjamb his stuck door. Maybe I'm asking for too
much, but after seeing Baltimore annihilated in a mushroom
cloud, seeing Ben Affleck get into a fender bender and bang
on his door just ain't too compelling. The sequence is irritating
and a pointless exercise in delay.
The action
then moves on to another negligible plot point. Ryan goes
to the warehouse where the bomb was smuggled into the US and
gets involved in a pointless fistfight. The fight is presumably
included to show the audience Ryan is now a "man of action".
He fight's woth a burly neo-nazi henchman of Dressler, who,
for this tale, is basically Oddjob without the hat or Jaws
without the dentures. Ryan, of course, triumphs, but in terms
of the fight's relevance to the rest of the film's plot, Ryan
would have been just as well off clocking a relief worker
at the red cross tent where he was looking for Cabot.
While
all this is going on, the President and his staff are flying
around in Air Force One in a state of alarm. Initially, the
film's Air Force one segments are riveting not just because
of Cromwell and the supporting cast's performances, but because
Robinson has decided to show the leaders of the free world
reacting in a highly emotional manner to the tragedy that
has occurred. They yell, they argue, they wring their hands.
They don't look anything like the inhumanly calm military/political
leaders of other action movies. They act as if they have really
been devastated b the attack on Baltimore. In fact, the presidential
staff's heated exchanges are the only place in the film where
we really see any effective dramatic emotional affect of the
disaster on any of the cast members.
Unfortunately
the yelling back and forth, the agonizing over whether or
not to nuke Russia goes on and on with the plot seldom escalating
or the story adding any significant new elements to this unfolding
drama. Once a squadron of Russian jets attack an aircraft
carrier in the north sea, an act which seemingly confirms
the need for the US to go to war, the leaders seem to argue
and waffle simply to give the film enough time for its hero
to save the day at the last minute.
The charged,
frantic atmosphere of the cabinet deliberations quickly wears
into tiresome redundancy. One aide wants to drop the bombs,
one aide wants to stand down and wait. That's the essence
of the conflict, and after the aircraft carrier attack , the
same arguments go back and forth ad infinitum over the last
hour without anything added, and when someone does make a
decision, its usually so steeped in military jargon, the significance
is impossible determine. Hey, I know that DEFCON is a real
defense department term, but its been a long time since I
saw Wargames, so it would be nice to have a refresher course
on what the difference between DEFCON 2 and DEFCON 3 is, for
example. There's also much deliberation on whether or not
the president should initiate a "snap count". An aide then
fires off the definition of a "snap count" for the audience's
benefit, but the dialogue is so machine gun fast, I couldn't
remember what it meant 10 minutes later or figure out exactly
why it means the CIA couldn't talk to the president for a
segment of the film they. Perhaps Air Force One doesn't have
call waiting?
The film's
finale has Ryan heading into the pentagon to make a last ditch
attempt to open up a line of communication to the Russian
premier, and the film requires the audience to take 2 pretty
big plot convenience leaps of faith to make it all happen.
Needless to say, Ryan's heroics mean nuclear holocaust is
avoided, leaving Ryan free to get married and have a picnic
on the white house lawn even though he still has to throw
away his orioles season tickets.
Despite
some solid performances, especially from James Cromwell, Liv
Schrieber, and an underused Morgan Freeman, and a concept
that should be as provocative as it is exciting, Sum of All
Fears is a victim of an early act that is hamstrung by an
audience that knows too much, and a second act where the obstacles
that face our heroes are often obligatory and irritating instead
of inventive and overwhelming. The Jack Ryan films and novels
are never as kiss-kiss, bang-bang exciting as James Bond flicks,
but they usually have the sort of verisimilitude that makes
you feel like you are learning something about the real workings
of high-level intelligence while you are watching. But with
the Sum of All Fears, I was never thrilled or excited or even
worried, and all I learned was that blowing up Baltimore can
make it really hard to get a hold of the president.
-Kyle
DuVall
As
a child of the late Cold-War era, I recall the tensions between
the East and West powers and how to many a pending war was
seen as inevitable between the two. Flash forward to the modern
era and things have changed considerably. The Eastern block
foes are now Democracies, and several have entered into NATO
becoming allies rather than potential adversaries. I myself
have some very close friends who are either from, or descendants
from the former Soviet Union, and have found that they are
closer in many beliefs and customs than many of our allies
in Europe, and that the negative propaganda issued by both
sides during the Cold-War only served to establish stereotypes
that kept people of both nations in the dark about the other.
With the tragic events of September 11th still at the forefront
of the news, the threat of a rogue nuclear device being smuggled
into a nation and detonated has become a major concern for
many. I recall a documentary once that issued the chilling
statement that if you have a million dollars, then you likely
can buy a nuclear device from nations where corruption or
government transitions are in affect. It is this frightening
backdrop that inspired the Tom Clancy novel the Sum of all
Fears.
In the film of the same name, Ben Affleck follows Harrison
Ford and Alec Baldwin in the role of CIA analyst Jack Ryan.
The film does a bit of a James Bond flip by casting a younger
actor in the role yet setting the events in modern day, however
it is great to see the how the younger Ryan rose to his top
status. At the outset of the film, Ryan has not yet risen
to his lofty status as the top analyst as he was in the previous
films; instead he is low member of a group that creates intelligence
reports for his superiors. A surprise election of a new President
in Russia brings Ryan into the forefront, as he had done an
in-depth study of the new Russian President prior to his political
rise and is now tasked with bringing his superiors up to speed
on the new leader.
Against this backdrop is a mix of events combine to take the
world to the height of war. A Neo-Nazi has obtained a nuclear
bomb, and sets a dastardly plan into motion. Combined this
chilling event with factions in the Russian military launching
a chemical missile attack on a rebellious republic and the
tensions are escalating worldwide pushing nations to the brink
of war. Naturally Ryan has to uncover the truth and save the
world from war in an ever-escalating situation. There are
many other clever sub-plots that all combine to make this
a gripping and effective thriller. There are some very intense
scenes in the film as there was a 30-minute stretch in the
film where the audience was in shocked silence over events.
James Cromwell and Morgan Freeman are fantastic in their supporting
roles and Affleck shines in the role making a seamless transition
into the franchise. While the film does have some plot holes,
it is for the most part a gripping and chilling thriller that
will leave you entertained and is a welcome addition to a
summer lineup that has given viewers some great entertainment
already.
-Gareth
Von Kallenbach
Gareth@nwlink.com
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