Patriot Games




It was rage, pure rage.

It's always ironic when they decide to air this on St. Patrick's Day.

Former CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) is on holiday in Britain along with his family. By coincidence he witnesses and subsequently spoils (with a wee bit of luck) an IRA terrorist action against a member of the Royal Family. Even after he returns home across the Atlantic as a hero, Ryan remains a target of a radical splinter cell of the IRA. When the threat closes in on his family, Ryan must once again fight to protect them all.

There's a lot to like about Patriot Games. Taken in as a whole, it's a solidly crafted action thriller, or at least initially. The beginning setup is both taunt and intelligently structured. Not only is the story presented in a believable enough manner, but Ryan's family is also lovingly introduced and characterized in simple but effective ways, something that becomes crucial for the rest of the film. Unfortunately, things start to taper off and the end sum doesn't come close to equaling what's been invested into it. The ending is actually somewhat disappointing, in a "that's it?" kind of way (the action climax that is). Action thrillers need not always be concerned with saving the whole world, but here the danger seems to diminish over time rather than build. Once the plot hits a certain point, it drags its feet towards the conclusion with a reluctance to add anything else interesting. The other aspects of the film, however, are fitting enough for a blockbuster, especially the Gaelic music that bookends the film. At the very least, Patriot Games gives an insightful look into the methods employed by modern intelligence agencies. The very end of the film is also clever in a "left hanging" sort of way.

Harrison Ford is naturally good. Not exactly awesome, but he is certainly always bankable as the hero, even if Jack Ryan isn't an intentionally action centric character. Anne Archer plays his loving wife but doesn't add much too the proceedings. Meanwhile, Thora Birch is quite cute as Jack's daughter, in a precocious Hollywood sort of way. Other notables include James Earl Jones and Samuel L. Jackson as some of Ryan's friends, and Patrick Bergin and Polly Walker as some of the IRA bad guys, though the latter pair suffers from that tapering underdevelopment mentioned earlier. And finally, a younger Sean Bean nearly steals the show as the terrorist obsessed with killing Ryan because that bumbling American bloke killed his little brother.

Not one of the best Jack Ryan flicks, but it still rates as a decent popcorn muncher on the thriller scale all the same. Not too buttery, not too plain.



-The Gnome