Review of Swordfish (2001) by Andrew U — 06 Jun 2009

I actually enjoyed this movie. The thing that really got me was the end, I did not understand it all that much. The film was entertaining and had a great beginning. Not a bad way to start a movie ? not a bad way at all. And the rest of Swordfish? The film is loaded with contradictions and paradoxes: it's enormously handsome, yet disquietingly grungy & edgy. It's an unexpectedly smart film, which is either too weak (or self-assured enough?) to readily embrace a whole slew of cheese-ball, lame-o action conceits. It is totally illogical and improbable (I dare you to get a bearing on Cheadle's character), yet imminently involving and compelling. On close inspection, it probably doesn't make sense on any level whatsoever. Direction by Dominic Sena (last year's Gone in Sixty Seconds remake) is crisp, and keeps the story flowing nicely, as does Paul Cameron's photography ? which manages to be distinctive and stylish without calling too much attention to itself. An enormous and elegant score by Christopher Young (Hellraiser, The Gift) and Paul Oakenfold (TV's Big Brother reality/lock-in series) lends a sincere and imminent quality to sequences which could easily have played as dumb and shallow without full orchestral support of this nature.

Stanley Jobson (Jackman) is an elite hacker who infected the FBI's Carnivore program with a potent computer virus, delaying its deployment by several years. For this, he was arrested by Agent Roberts (Cheadle), convicted of computer crimes and spent two years in Leavenworth. A condition of his parole is that he is forbidden from touching, much less using, a computer. His ex-wife, Melissa, has sole custody over their daughter Holly and some form of restraining order against Stanley from seeing Holly. While Stanley is at home in rural Texas practicing his golf swing, a woman named Ginger Knowles (Berry) shows up to solicit his hacking skills for her boss Gabriel Shear (John Travolta). For an initial $100,000 he agrees to meet with Gabriel. He and Ginger fly to Los Angeles, California and meet Gabriel in a night club. Gabriel pressures Stanley right then and there to hack a government system in 60 seconds while simultaneously being held at gun point and having fellatio performed on him by a young woman. Although it was just a test (the gun was not loaded) Stanley succeeded in hacking the system, a feat that Gabriel had not anticipated.

At Gabriel's house he convinces Stanley to write a worm for $10 million that steals money from a secret government slush fund on the order of $9.5 billion. Gabriel reveals to Stanley that he works for an organization called the Black Cell that was started by J. Edgar Hoover in the 1950s, which is responsible for retaliatory attacks against terrorists who have attacked Americans. It is currently headed by Senator Reisman (Sam Shepard). Reisman discovers that the FBI has caught onto Gabriel and attempts to pull the plug. After Gabriel refuses to terminate plans Reisman attempts to have Gabriel killed, which fails. Gabriel tracks the Senator down while he is fly fishing in Bend, Oregon and kills Reisman.