The Sum of All Fears

December 10, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 124 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The Sum of All Fears is the fourth Tom Clancy novel to be made into a movie joining The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. This time out Jack Ryan is played by Ben Affleck. If you overlook the obvious timeline problems Affleck’s age presents and view this as a standalone film, it is quite entertaining.

In this installment, we find Dr. Jack Ryan just starting his career at the CIA working as a low level analyst. This is a much younger Jack Ryan than we met in the previous stories, and he is only just beginning to date the future Mrs. Ryan. The timeline issue here is that this is not a prequel, it is set in the current day, although Jack himself has obviously gone thru some sort of time warp. Bottom line here is just put the timeline out of your head and sit back and enjoy the movie, anything else will drive you crazy.

The story here has Jack getting the attention of the Director of the CIA, played extremely well by Morgan Freeman, with his excellent research on the man who has just become the Russian President. Ryan ends up involved in a major international crisis involving a nuclear device that is destined to be detonated in the U.S. and a standoff between the US and Russia that could lead to all our nuclear war. As is usually the case with a Clancy novel, his expertise of national security and warfare makes the story quite believable. We enjoy that touch of realism, but if you’re looking for escapism you may find this story perhaps TOO believable in light of recent world affairs.

The film has a few flaws. Although I haven’t read the book, I get the distinct impression that most of those are from trying to cram a huge novel into a 2 hour movie. It is also pretty obvious that the movie tries to soften the blow of hitting us with a terrorist scenario that could actually happen. First off, at some point the bad guys here were changed to be “Neo-Nazi’s” instead of Arabs. Second, Ryan’s girlfriend adds virtually nothing to the storyline. We get the idea she is there to provide some tender timeouts. Instead of “comedic relief”, we feel like we’re being hit with “romantic relief”.

If you forget the books and forget the previous movies, so the timeline issues do not drive you crazy, this is a very good movie. We have no problem accepting Affleck as a young Jack Ryan, he does a great job. It is not the type of movie we’ll watch over and over, but it presents a very compelling story and presents one of those scenarios that makes you think. Unfortunately, the events portrayed in this movie could easily happen in real life. We hope they never do, but we also cant help but be sucked into such a gritty realistic story. If you’re looking for a more serious, more mature movie this summer, The Sum of All Fears is a good choice.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 4 Stars, Alan Bates, Ben Affleck, Bridget Moynahan, Liev Schreiber, Morgan Freeman, PG-13, Theatrical, Thriller