The Sum Of All Fears

The fictional Jack Ryan is America’s answer to James Bond, minus the pussy-pulling power and personality. Previously played by Harrison Ford in the unforgettable ‘thrillrides’ that were The Hunt For Red October, Patriot Games and Clear And Present Danger, his role has now been assumed by Ben Affleck for episode four. Jingoistic to an extent, but nowhere near as obnoxious as much of the USA’s recent output, The Sum Of All Fears is probably the best of the Ryan films yet, with Affleck effortlessly leaving Harrison Ford for dead in the charisma stakes.

A curious exercise in weepy Stars-and-Stripes-waving post-September 11 self-pity which slowly mutates into a touchy-feely ad for Peace In Our Time, it stars our clean-cut hero as a lowly CIA operative who’s drafted in by superior Morgan Freeman thanks to his in-depth knowledge of Russian affairs when the filthy commies start acting up again. Newly-ascended President Nemerov (a hugely enjoyable Ciaran Hinds) appears far too ready to publicly diss the US’ ‘unacceptable interference in internal affairs’ vis-a-vis Chechnya, and an increasingly tense stand-off develops which swiftly has both sides reaching for the button and seeing who might blink first.

Thankfully, once you’ve sat through an opening hour replete with Cold War cliches and loud renditions of ‘The Star Spangled Jackboot’, the film settles down to become a stylish and pacy yarn about missing nukes and sinister shadowy international neo-Nazi organisations. Hinds’ demented Slavic posturing accounts for much of the fun, Affleck renders Ryan less remote and stuffy than Ford generally tended to, and director Robinson (Field Of Dreams) keeps the urgency levels up throughout. The Sum Of All Fears won’t wind up on anyone’s list of lost masterpieces, but it does deliver exactly what it promises.