spazierganger

I went into "The Sum of All Fears" expecting to be disappointed by Ben Affleck. I'm not really a fan of much of his dramatic work ("Changing Lanes" is an exception). I have not seen the other Jack Ryan movies, but I still didn't really think Affleck would make a credible CIA agent. So I was pleasantly surprised by his performance. It certainly isn't Oscar material, but he is very credible, which was more than I was expecting. The supporting cast is also quite good, especially the always impressive Morgan Freeman as Affleck's mentor and Ciaran Hinds as the Russian president.

Speaking of the Russian president, I was impressed by the way the film portrayed him. Usually, foreign leaders in films are very one-dimensional. President Nemerov, however, is very well developed, with clear motivations for his actions. He is not the evil madman Hollywood commonly makes foreigners (especially Russians) out to be. In fact, he is arguably a better person than the film's American president. So I commend the writers for that.

However, despite the acting and the good characters I did not really enjoy this film. Why? Because it's supposed to be suspenseful, and it's not. I know that Jack Ryan is trying to avert a major world crisis, but having him run around with a cell phone and type on computers does not generate much suspense. This is what a lot of the film, including the "climax" basically comes down to. The film is not deep enough to be a serious drama, so it needs the suspense and the action to deliver. Unfortunately, this does not happen. Although "The Sum of All Fears" does have some good qualities, it ultimately fails to deliver the basic needs of the genre, so I can't really recommend it. You could definitely do worse, but you could also do a lot better.

Rating: 5/10

Maybe I'm just impatient, but I found the first half of "The Man Who Wasn't There," pretty boring to sit through. Admittedly, sometimes there are things you don't notice until you've seen a film multiple times, so maybe I missed some of those the first time through, but it seemed like the first half could have been shortened considerably. The second half of the film makes up for the first. There are quite a few surprise plot twists and director Joel Coen builds a lot of tension and creates a sense of dread.

Billy Bob Thornton is great as the main character. He says so much even when he seems to be doing nothing at all. The rest of the cast is also impressive, especially McDormand and Shalhoub. Also impressive is the cinematography. Roger Deakins does so much with black and white that one could easily mistake it for one of the older film noir pictures that obviously influenced the Coens.

What I'm less than thrilled with is the script. In addition to the first half of the movie dragging, there are a couple other problems. I'm not sure what Scarlett Johansson's character was in the movie. Don't get me wrong, she did a good job, but I don't see the importance of the character. Again, perhaps I'm missing something. Also, a lot of the dialogue seems to be self-consciously trying to be "noir," that it becomes cliche and annoying. Lines like "Me, I just cut the hair," would be funny if the delivery wasn't so serious.

Overall, "The Man Who Wasn't There," is an enjoyable half-a-movie. The first half drags, but the second half is very good film noir drama. It's well acted despite the flaws in the script. It's worth a look if you like this kind of thing.

Rating: 6.5/10