Poor acting smothers 'Firewall'

FIREWALL — * 1/2 — Harrison Ford, Paul Bettany, Virginia Madsen; rated PG-13 (violence, profanity, brief gore, vulgarity, brief drugs).

Though it's supposed to be a suspense-thriller, "Firewall" is suspense-free short on thrills. Worse, it features a lead, Harrison Ford, who looks at times as if he'd rather be somewhere — anywhere — else.

However, singling Ford out for blame because of his uneasy and lethargic performance is unfair. After all, the movie gets more ridiculous and implausible as it goes along.

Ford stars as Jack Stanfield, the security chief of a Seattle bank. Jack's usually calm demeanor and patience is tested when a band of high-tech criminals, led by the calculating Bill Cox (Paul Bettany), kidnap his wife (Virginia Madsen) and kids (Carly Schroeder and Jimmy Bennett).

The crooks are trying to force Jack to rob his bank of millions, and after a couple of failed escape attempts, it appears he's going to go along with their plan — especially when Cox shows Jack some deadly examples of just how serious he is.

Director Richard Loncraine ("Wimbledon") is really out of his element with this type of material. He tries to shoot a couple of action scenes in the hyper-realistic style of "The Bourne Identity" films, but they're so cluttered and incomprehensible that it's impossible to tell what's going on.

Also, Joe Forte's script is lacking in any warmth or humor that would lighten up this too-dark piece.

Ford seems uninterested in doing anything except collecting a pay check. And Bettany is no better; though he impressed in "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World," he is surprisingly tentative as the villain here.

The female co-stars, Madsen and Mary Lynn Rajskub, fare slightly better. But Rajskub is simply rehashing the role she already plays on television's "24" . . . where, coincidentally, her boss is also named Jack.

The film would be easier to dismiss or laugh off, however, if it didn't have such a distasteful, vicious, nasty streak, putting young children in peril and subjecting female characters to slaps and beatings.

"Firewall" is rated PG-13 for strong scenes of violence and peril (including shootings, some brawling, violence against women and some explosive mayhem), occasional use of strong profanity (including one usage of the so-called "R-rated" curse word), some brief gore, use of vulgar gestures and crude sexual slang terms, and some brief drug content (an epinephrine injection). Running time: 104 minutes.

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E-mail: jeff@desnews.com