The Harrison Ford film Firewall is a serviceable thriller but could have been so much more. Ford stars as Paul Nilsson in the film, the head of digital security at a regional bank that is dealing with the rise of online finance and a merger with a much larger firm. 

The film’s backdrop reflects real-world changes that were going on in the banking industry at the time of its release. But Firewall never seizes on its topical premise. It has none of the requisite ambition, which wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if it offered more elsewhere. 

The thrills in this so-called thriller emerge in the form of Paul Bettany’s Bill Cox, a smooth-talking ruffian whose gang breaks into Nilsson’s home one night and takes the man’s family hostage. Their goal is to coerce Paul into digitally funneling money from his bank to their offshore accounts. With his family helplessly corralled, Paul must do what they say. He returns to his bank to carry out their instructions, all while looking desperately for an off-ramp. 

When Firewall came out in 2006, rapid digitization and consolidation were reshaping the financial sector, and the consequences of this shift would emerge in the form of the Great Recession just two years later. But Firewall rarely shows interest in reflecting the zeitgeist. There are moments when it seems like it might go there. One in particular concerns Bettany’s Bill marveling at the absurdity of stealing virtual money. Another occurs when Paul is setting off for work the morning after the home invasion, and Bill sneers how he should get out there and chase “the American Dream.”

Collectively, these two sardonic remarks hint that the film might critique the systems in which the characters are mired. But by and large, Firewall refrains from building any type of substantive statement. There is no requirement that a film does this, of course. Yet if it passes on such a golden opportunity, then at the very least, it should deliver the goods elsewhere.

Firewall only gets part of the way there. Director Richard Loncraine is no auteur, and he mostly shoots the film in an uninspired, workman-like fashion. To his credit, the film’s action does get up and running quickly, with viewers getting swiftly drawn into the predicament faced by Paul and his family.

The film’s cast has a lot to do with this and is about as sturdy as you could hope for. With Gangster No. 1, Bettany proved he could be credibly ruthless, and he brings a similar menace here. Ford is not playing a character as much as he is playing a Fordian archetype in Firewall: an almost comically upstanding, all-American hero. Despite us having seen all this before from the veteran actor, few are as good at personifying this stock character as he is. He grounds and guides the film even when it’s at its weakest.

Rounding out the top-billed cast is Virginia Madsen, an architect and Paul’s wife. To her credit, Madsen does what she can with limited material. She makes Beth a warm, likable figure, who dotes on both her kids and husband. But she never gets a chance to develop any further. It is a particular shame given how good Madsen is when given a decent part, which she had provided just two years earlier with her Oscar-nominated role in Alexander Payne’s Sideways. 

Despite their considerable efforts, Firewall slows down quite a bit at around the halfway point, with the filmmakers unable to maintain the momentum of the first third. They also don’t compensate for this lull by expanding on the film’s characters or fleshing out its themes. Things do ramp back up again toward the film’s climax, with Ford proving once again he’s probably one of cinema’s greatest physical actors. His characters across multiple films always appear genuinely traumatized whenever they emerge from gunfights or fisticuffs, and his acting in these moments never fails to move me. The same holds true here.

Even though Firewall ends on this relative high note, it’s not enough. It doesn’t change how the film is mostly just mildly diverting. Nor does it erase its failure to grapple with an industry whose maleficence would soon make the world scream.