Starring: Ben Affleck, Morgan Freeman, Bridget Moynahan, Liev Schreiber, Alan Bates
There's three ways to watch The Sum of All Fears: as a movie, as a Jack Ryan thriller, and as a cautionary tale concerning nuclear terrorism. Alas, it fails to succeed as any of those, although not for a lack of trying.
First, as a movie, Fears feels like it was filmed from a Cliffs Notes version of the Tom Clancy book it's based upon. The story is often forced by plot convenience. Whenever the screenplay calls for it, Ryan just happens to be in the right place at the right time, including a ridiculous sequence towards the end where he hunts through a burning and irradiated Baltimore for a suspect. Burning and irradiated? If you've seen the commercials or trailers for the film, you'll realize that I didn't give anything away that the producers didn't already want you to know.
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That's not snow, Jack. |
Second, as a Jack Ryan thriller, the movie eviscerated Clancy's smartest book. The convincing and sympathetic gaggle of Middle Eastern and East European terrorists are now replaced by Neo-Nazis straight out of central casting. Uh, right. . . because, as everybody knows, the United States is currently at war with Colonel Klink and his buddies! In 1991, The Sum of All Fears was a cutting edge cautionary tale, warning how difficult it could be to secure the peace after the Cold War. Well, more than ten years later, we have that peace, and the film version barely reflects the changes that have happened since the collapse of the Soviet Union. At least the film version of The Hunt for Red October didn't pull its punches, remaining set during the Cold War. Fears doesn't have the luxury of being set in the past (it'd be a little hard to miss the nuking of Baltimore during the 1980s), but without updating-- the crisis involving Chechnya is a stretch-- the plot feels musty. There's still a serious danger of nuclear terrorism and nuclear war, but contrary to what the politically correct types in Hollywood say, I'm more worried about Al Qaeda and Pakistan than South Africans and Russia.
| Comrade Affleck, you were the bomb in Phantoms! |
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Speaking of The Hunt for Red October, Alec Baldwin was still the best Jack Ryan, and that film deserves kudos for being one of the best adaptations ever made of a novel, putting lie to the cliche that you can't make a movie as good as the book. Harrison Ford also did well as Ryan, but his films (Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger) were really just star vehicles for him, with both films taking significant liberties with their respective books. While Ben Affleck does an admirable job, his character is recycled from the earlier films. One element missing from the Jack Ryan films that the books convey so well is the evolution of Ryan from a junior analyst to a mature, responsible leader. Directorial and screenwriting choices made sure that the Ryan films never attempted to achieve any such continuity. With Fears, by default the new, younger Jack Ryan has to start from Year One. As a result, it seems that entire scenes were lifted from the earlier films (the Ryan-opens-his-smart-mouth-in-a-conference-room-full-of-big-wigs, Ryan says he's "just an analyst" at least a dozen times, etc.). It's as if every sequel to Spider-Man had to retell the origin story over and over again.
While Affleck never has an opportunity to stretch, surprisingly, Liev Shreiber shines as the black-ops maestro John Clark. At first, I thought he was seriously miscast (I was never happy with Willem Dafoe as Clark in Clear & Present Danger, either, but at least he had the age about right), but Shreiber captures Clark's acerbic wit and "been there, done that" attitude well. There's just not enough of him to go around. Give the man Rainbow Six and Paramount will have another franchise real quick.
Finally, the film doesn't really work as a nuclear war film. Given that the film is predicated on a rather obsolete scenario (a U.S.-Russia confrontation), any tension it creates is artificial. Because it's a Jack Ryan "franchise" film, you never for a moment fear that things will spiral out of control (unlike in, say, Crimson Tide, which ran along a knife's edge until the cop-out ending). Also, unlike in the book, the President (played by James "I love bacon" Cromwell) isn't so much a politically conniving jerk as he is just amiably clueless. In the book you got the feeling that the arrogant President just might be bullheaded enough to kill half the planet out of spite, but in the film version Cromwell comes across as misguided yet still well-meaning. A stellar supporting cast (Morgan Freeman, Phillip Baker Hall, and Alan Bates, among others) is mostly wasted as the film clearly intends to be an actioner for Affleck instead of the ensemble political thriller it should be.
| "So, how much more for the extra cheesy bread?" |
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When I'm not fighting crime in the inner city, my day job for Uncle Sam involves a lot of the technology showcased in this film. From a technical perspective, the film is pretty accurate. The military stuff is workable, if overly reliant on stock footage. And watching a black, oily mushroom cloud rise over Charm City is scary as all hell, even if the sequence is short. Despite claims to the contrary, the film feels like it was it edited after 9/11; very little destruction is shown. While merciful, it detracts from the impact of the event, making it feel more like a movie and less like reality. In addition, the aforementioned sequence with Ryan running through the ruins is preposterous. Apparently, the filmmakers were unable to grasp sixty-year old concepts like "fallout" and "firestorms." There's a few nods in that direction, (stuff about "prevailing winds" and all), but it's just enough to remind us that the filmmakers don't want to be bothered with any technical details that contradict their action/adventure script. Oh well, it's only a movie, right?
Unfortunately, the film deals with a subject that deserves a more serious treatment at a time like this. Nuclear terrorism was hardly entertaining before 9/11, but dwelling on it now in what is ostensibly an action/adventure film feels like morbid pornography. Oooh, have to see the next "explosion" movie this summer! The film deserves credit for recognizing the stakes involved, but by virtue of being a Jack Ryan film, what should have been a more dramatic film (like director Phil Alden Robinson's earlier, underrated Thirteen Days) is simply a standard potboiler that's out of touch with our present reality. Not to mention, it's a pretty sloppy adaptation of a much smarter book.
The Sum of All Fears earns just 2 popcorns-- a noble effort, but short of the mark.
Things to watch out for: How Ravens Stadium in Baltimore is now a domed stadium (the film was shot in Montreal). How there are wide-open fields such a short drive from the stadium. Coyote Ugly's Bridget Moynahan as the future-Mrs. Ryan (she has nothing to do in this film but stand around and complain about how she never sees Jack, but she's still very easy on the eyes).
Dave Kozik is a guest critic, filling in while Filmboy is on sabbatical.
