DVD: Buy The Sum of All Fears Online

Average Rating:

The latest Ryan movie, "The Sum of All Fears," is based on Tom Clancy's sixth novel, written in 1991. The chronology may strike the casual observer as a bit skewed. Apparently, "Sum" is a kind of prequel that takes Ryan back to his days as a feckless CIA rookie. It shows him merely dating Cathy (Bridget Moynahan), who will become his future wife (Anne Archer in the Ford films).Yet, this movie is taking place in the present and that would mean...Oh, never mind. Let's all do the Time Warp again and let it go.

Anyway, Ryan is a greenhorn analyst whose particular expertise - he wrote a paper on a Russian official named Alexander Nemerov(Ciaran Hinds) - is now in great demand because Nemerov has just become the new president of Russia. Recruited by CIA director William Cabot (Morgan Freeman), Ryan quickly finds himself behind some very powerful closed doors, talking strategy with President Fowler (a very credible James Cromwell) and his top aides (Philip Baker Hall, Ron Rifkin and Bruce McGill).

Meanwhile, a neo-Nazi (Alan Bates) has acquired a nuclear bomb, which he plans to use to start a war between Russia and the U.S. The idea is first to detonate the bomb at the Super Bowl in Baltimore, which the President is attending, and then rachet up the tension until the U.S. is convinced Nemerov is on the attack, and the two countries blow each other into oblivion.

The bomb goes off - a harrowing sequence depicting a supposed low-level "dirty bomb" done in desaturated colors that shows us a very bleak Baltimore - isn't what the movie is about; it's about the aftermath. The confusion (particularly at the highest levels of government), the terror and, especially, the compassion as everyone tries to take care of everyone else.

Which, of course, echoes the confusion, terror and compassion that really happened on Sept. 11. That shocking moment in history is inevitably intertwined with any movie offering this kind of scenario. It may be too soon for some to watch.

It may be just right for others. The nine months distance does help. Our collective horrified memory - and remember, this movie was finished befire 9/11 - gives some considerable emotional heft to what would otherwise be another routinely professonal Clancy thriller. This time last year, the idea of a a nuclear explosion in Baltimore would strike the average viewer as unlikely, as far-fetched as a killer meteor. Now such an event has a chilling possibility. Something very close to it has already happened and seeing it imagined gives the picture a resonance it could never have summoned on its own.

"The Sum of All Fears" is more of an ensemble piece than earlier Ryan adventures. Freeman continues to be a magic ingredient for any movie - like adding butter and sugar to most recipes. Cromwell brings dignity and humanity to a familiar part. After the explosion, he's not only enraged that someone attacked America but that "they tried to kill me." Liev Schreiber shows up as an expert field operative (originally played by Willem Dafoe). Typically a cerebral actor, he's surprisingly convincing in an action role.

As for Affleck, he really isn't bad. His comic exchanges with Freeman are delightful and he can carry off the square-jawed-hero bit when called upon. But as movies like the recent "Changing Lanes" showed, he has a deft semi-comic touch. He should be playing some of the roles Hugh Grant turns down. The director, Phil Alden Robinson ("Field of Dreams"), isn't a conventional action director, but he handles the end-of-the-world stuff well. Plus, he brings a much-needed human dimension to the characters.

Early Summer 2002 is shaping up to be all about comic-book heroes and George Lucas fantasies. That makes a good ol' Hollywood action flick even more welcome. "The Sum of All Fears" may not be super-smart, but it's rock-solid. And a fine way to spend a few hours out of the summer heat.

A mostly successful effort to reboot Paramount's successful Tom Clancy franchise of high-tech political thrillers, this elaborate action hit is surprisingly gripping and effective for most of its running time, only fumbling with a poorly developed villain and a few regrettable clichés in its final act. Quickly becoming the American version of James Bond, the Jack Ryan character is here interpreted by the third actor in only four films, but it's a welcome surprise that Ben Affleck delivers his second good performance in the same year (after Changing Lanes). Affleck revealed a new vulnerability and emotional depth that will be welcomed by fans preferring Alec Baldwin's slightly nerdy take on Ryan over Harrison Ford's more seasoned tough-guy version. The script's conceit of returning Ryan to his young analysis-drone roots works quite well, emphasizing the character's fish-out-of-water qualities and making him a better stand-in for audience identification -- as well as giving the veteran Morgan Freeman something to play against as Ryan's wily fox of a professional mentor. A sequence involving a terrorist nuclear explosion on American soil is handled well effects-wise, and tastefully, out of consideration for real-world events only months before. However, the placement of the climactic blast at the film's midpoint, rather than later in the narrative where it belongs, serves to deflate the remaining tension. Scenes depicting the president's dickering with advisors over whether or not to launch a retaliatory strike smack of overly familiar Cold War vintage dramas such as By Dawn's Early Light, and it doesn't help that Ryan ends up grappling with a beefy neo-Nazi in a darkened Baltimore warehouse, a beat more reminiscent of a typical Barnaby Jones episode than an expensive summer blockbuster. Speaking of Nazis, Alan Bates as the film's proto-Hitler wannabe Dressler is never quite delineated clearly, showing up only occasionally to make demented fascist-apologist speeches and then disappearing for long stretches, his evil scheme never seeming realistic enough to create a palpable sense of dread. Nevertheless, the final payoff is satisfying and for most of the journey there, the filmmakers deliver the pulse-pounding goods, ensuring further Affleck-as-Ryan adventures will be in the offing.

While Affleck's acting left something to be desired, I can't be totally critical of his performance. He really did try. He put forth as workman-like an effort as anyone could hope for. He just simply does not have the talent or presence to fill the formidable shoes of an action hero like Jack Ryan. Action hero roles are proving to be a difficult type of acting. Add to that the premise of this movie, a nuclear attack on Baltimore followed by mounting tensions between the U.S. and Russia in its aftermath, and you have a tall order for any actor to fill. The true acting disaster in this movie belongs to Bridget Moynahan who plays his girl friend (soon-to-be wife) Cathy Muller. Moynahan's most notable previous work was as one of the dancing waitresses in "Coyote Ugly", not exactly a stellar pedigree. Maybe in time she will improve as an actress, but in "Sum of All Fears", Moynahan shows absolutely no acting or emotional range. Baltimore is in ruins, her boyfriend is off risking his life to prevent a full-scale nuclear war, she has to deal with nuclear victims at her hospital and her expression would make one think she was annoyed at missing a sale at Macy's, not that she has just witnessed one of the greatest tragedies visited upon U.S. soil.

Having said my piece about two the main leads, let me focus now on the rest of the movie. The plot for "Sum of All Fears" is a very sobering one (and one that several real-life experts find to be very plausible). With the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise to nuclear power status of many Middle East nations, it's not inconceivable that a terrorist cell could get their hands on a single nuclear weapon and transport it to the United States. In this movie, an Israeli jet equipped with a nuclear bomb is shot down during a skirmish between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors in 1973. Fast forward a few decades and the bomb has been unearthed by some scavengers who are unaware of its true purpose. A group of Nazi-loyalists track down the rogue bomb and procure it for their purposes. The purposes being destroying a major U.S. city and making it appear that Russia was behind it in order to start a full scale nuclear war between to the two nations. In the aftermath, the Nazi's plan to use the chaos to reclaim worldwide power (at least that seems to be the plan. It's not extraordinarily clear). The concept of a nuclear terrorist attack is a very scary, very real scenario that hits home even harder in the aftermath of 9/11 and the discovering of an Al-Qaeda member planning to set off a radioactive 'dirty bomb'. This situation is handled with appropriate degrees of plausibility. The suddenness of the nuclear detonation in Baltimore combined its signature shockwaves and mushroom cloud are visions that are horrifying to view makes one hope to never have to in real life. The reactions by the President (played ably by James Cromwell) and the rest of his cabinet seem very real and very human. They aren't ice-cold, calm, and calculating in determining how to respond to this devastation. They react emotionally, confused, and frustrated. It is how one would expect leaders to react behind closed doors during such a tremendous crisis. One would think President Bush and his advisors had moments similar to those in the movie in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The rising tension as one incident after another pushes the U.S. and Russia closer to nuclear war is palpable. It's frightening to see how, for the right money and opportunity, such plans can come to fruition.

"Sum of All Fears" is a well-done movie and will leave the audience captivated as they watch the progression of events. There is just a feeling, though, that this movie could have been something more with different casting choices.