Firewall -- 2006 -- PG-13

So last night, we put in this thriller with Harrison Ford, who is not quite the Indiana Jones he once was as he runs around trying to be nimble, but occasionally having his age catch up with him. Perhaps it was deliberate.

The premise is a guy's (who was in charge of a bank's computer security) family is taken hostage in his own home. The hostage-takers have figured out his identity, habits, his family's info, even down to allergies. They take control over everything he has and leave us hanging for awhile before they reveal why they want him: to rob the bank electronically. Kinda simple for a premise, but makes for a neat little movie.

There is some creativity that went into this as they put up quite a few roadblocks here and there along the way to make things just a bit more complicated than the bad guys anticipated. One of my faves was the bad guy's simple plan to hook into a maintenance terminal, but he's told he's a week late. The bank had a merger and last week, they were all removed. I think the solution was a tad oversimpified on how they actually pulled it off, but who knows...that might be possible. It was creative.

The characters themselves were decent, but not great. We actually knew very, very little about the man and his family beyond some bare basics required to make the plot move. It was a fun ride to watch it unfold, but while the character decisions influenced the plot, it really felt like the plot was the star here with the characters being a requirement to make it work.

This is the type of film that spends such little time in developing characters that when they try, it stands out as cheap exposition, and you just want them to admit they aren't trying and just let the plot roll out. It goes plot, plot, plot, plot, I lost my little kitten when I was three and that really made an impact on my life back then, plot, plot, plot, plot. Notice how it slowed down when you read about the kitten? Kind of like that.

We had one major hiccup in the plot, and that's when there was an escape attempt. I will say that every element of the attempt was well setup. It was fun to watch them play out the escape and have each piece of a mini-puzzle fall into place as it plays out. What went wrong? They got all the way to the car and got it started. Instead of driving, they gave into the guns and got out. If she has hit the gas, they would have been home free. If you're going to blow an escape attempt, have her drop the keys in the floorboards, not start the car. Once the car is started, having the bad guys win that one is giving into the plot, not the characters. A mother would say "heads down, kids" and get the heck out.

With that exception, the film was rather good and fun to watch. It left you hanging for quite awhile at the beginning just wondering why they have moved into this guy's life. And with each complication, the plot just grew more and more clever. It's a shame, they didn't develop some interesting characters to go with it.