Sum of All Fears

Adapted from the Tom Clancy 1991 snooze fest of the same name, The Sum of All Fears competently plays on the current anxiety-filled climate, prevalent in the United States. A group of neo-Nazis, headed up by Dressler (Alan Bates) are inexplicably intent on provoking all out conflict between America and Russia, which will leave the way open for fascism to rise again. Their means of doing so is to detonate a nuclear warhead at an American football game, attended by the President (James Cromwell). The only thing standing in their way is the efforts of young, ambitious CIA operative Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck).

Simplistic, with a plot that is insufficiently developed and characters that are too broadly drawn to be believable, The Sum of All Fears is not a particularly memorable film. What it does have going for it, however, is the notion of timing - that the events described here are not as unbelievable as they may have been a little over a year ago (even if the villains are). In terms of performances, Freeman does a predictably stoic job as Ryan's mentor, but Affleck is the real disappointment. After a bright opening, he seems to lose interest in the character, wheeling through a bog standard range of emotions.