The Sum of All Fears Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)August 2nd, 2002
Sum of All Fears
Matinee & Snacks
I saw this a couple of months before it opened at a test screener, and not since; yet ironically, am writing this review now. All shame aside, when I saw it that day, not being a Tom Clancy fan or Jack Ryan fan, I did quite enjoy it. Ben Affleck, the upstart heir to the Jack Ryan throne, is playing a young, pre-career Ryan, but set in the present day. I describe this anachronism by comparing the character of Ryan to James Bond. Pierce Brosnan's 2002 Bond is clearly no older than 40 years old, but of course Bond girls have been wiggling enticingly since the 1960's when Brosnan was in short pants. Jack Ryan is the American James Bond; unlimited power outside the traditional power structure, extra special resources, and political adventurer. Ryan in later incarnations is happily married, blah blah. Anyway, it justifies Affleck's shorter teeth than Harrison Ford's and it also gives a new, amusing perspective on the insanely different life Ryan leads. He's still kind of a tool, but it works for him to be that naïve and clumsy in this phase of Ryan's career. Affleck's innate cockiness offsets this quality and makes it work.
That said, I saw the film because it was a screener but also because Morgan Freeman is in it. Morgan Freeman plays his specialty: world weary, wise, and lovable, but as a foil to Affleck it plays as a strong counter measure. I have not really appreciated Affleck of late and I must say that he did a great job making me feel guilty for making fun of him. Is it Freeman's staid and wise influence, or is it just the right role came along? I don't care. I had not read the book so I had no idea what was going to happen, and as a jaded moviegoer did not believe that disaster could strike in the manner it actually did. I was thrilled that the filmmakers could surprise me, and thrilled that after that payoff the movie retained my interest. I won't give it away for the cave-dwellers who missed the awful spoiler preview.
Anyway there is a scene well into the film where, in my supposedly unfinished sound and music print, it was washed out, quiet, and there was little to no music; I found this incredibly effective in building tension and it influenced a lot of my good opinion of the film. I liked being worked up by the insane cold-war-style escalation, I liked being unsure what would happen next, and I liked watching young Ryan figuring it all out. I really enjoyed it. My companion of that screener went back after the film actually opened and liked it just as well, but couldn't remember if the music and sound were different. Either way, it's entertainment that speaks to us post-9/11 and hopefully points a finger at the senselessness of mis- or non-communication in the global arena.
Technically speaking, I loved all the establishing shots, shown not a camera perched on a sidewalk outside a grand building, but humbling and vaguely unsettling satellite photos from space, blurring boundaries and also depersonalizing the target - and making us remember we are always being watched. The editing was great too, though I cannot remember why now. (In the darkness I wrote: "nice editing") But it was. Great story, frustrating in its eerie inevitability - today it seems such a thing could happen any second, 1984 all over again but without Matthew Broderick hacking into DEFCON to save us.
Check it out.
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These reviews (c) 2002 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but just credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks.
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