The Sum Of All Fears review

Following Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck becomes the third incarnation of Tom Clancy's heroic CIA agent Jack Ryan. For all his likeable qualities, Affleck is not a commanding screen presence and his earnest but lightweight portrayal of the young Ryan offers little evidence of the more formidable Ryan depicted by his predecessors. Comparisons aren't helped by a convoluted plot too fragmented to sustain any sense of urgency or drama. In his exhaustive novel, Clancy had the luxury of time to unravel his political thriller, but condensed into two hours, characters and events are too hastily dealt with for clarity or satisfaction.

The Sum Of All Fears's depiction of a terrorist strike on mainland America was an issue of concern in the wake of September 11th, but paradoxically the film's biggest problem is not that it showed an attack, but that it offered little in the way of justification. Instead the event, conveyed with chilling effect, seemed almost gratuitous and unrelated to the film's main theme, which was an oddly old-fashioned cold war showdown between America and Russia.

The complex story involves the discovery of a nuclear bomb amidst the wreckage of an Israeli plane that crashed in 1973, the disappearance of three top Russian scientists and the political upheaval in that country following the appointment of a new President, Nemerov (Ciáran Hinds). It is Ryan's in-depth knowledge of Nemerov that brings him to the attention of his CIA boss, the wily Cabot (Morgan Freeman), and his boldness during a meeting with US President Fowler (James Cromwell) that incurs Cabot's wrath: "When I asked for your advice I didn't mean you should actually speak."

As Nemerov struggles to assert his authority amidst a domestic conflict that threatens to escalate, and a megolamaniacal villain, Dressler (Alan Bates), implements his own wicked scheme, it is left to Ryan to perform the difficult balancing act of saving the world while not neglecting his new girlfriend (Bridget Moynihan). In his world-saving task, Ryan is aided by the dynamic CIA operative John Clark who, in the consummate hands of Liev Schreiber, is a more convincing hero.

Directed energetically by Phil Alden Robinson, The Sum Of All Fears is typical Clancy, with its extravagant action sequences and exotic locations. Punctuated by the occasional moment of lapsed logic, the film strides forward with great verve and determination, but beneath all its posturing and bluster, it doesn't go anywhere.