The premise of Enemy of the State is interesting. A bunch of rogue National Security Agency folks bump off a congressman to ensure passage of a law giving them increased surveillance powers. Robert Dean (Will Smith), a young Washington, DC lawyer, unwittingly becomes entangled when the bad guys decide he possesses a film of the crime. They use bugs, hidden cameras, satellite tracking and plenty more dirty tricks to pursue Dean. As he runs for his life, Dean is aided by a reclusive private investigator (Gene Hackman). The two run from the bad guys and try to turn the tables on them.
Unfortunately, this story doesn't hold together. It makes no sense for the NSA folks to go to such lengths to get the law passed, when their actions prove they don't need it at all. They already have outrageous power and the ability to invade people's privacy. It also makes no sense for an honest lawyer to try to blackmail a mob boss, or do business with his former mistress. Logical flaws like this apply throughout the film.
The script is also weak. People say dumb things real people would never say. For example, a Mafia boss gives Dean a week to tell him who made a film. Why a week? Certainly not because a gangland boss would really say that.
The biggest flaw in Enemy of the State is the filmmakers' total lack of self-restraint. Instead of building tension, they constantly need to show off the technology they had to play with. There are too many cameras, bugs and other electronic toys, too many fires and explosions, too many cuts to a satellite circling Earth and too much hyperactive editing. This film claims to be about balancing protection of national security with protection of civil rights, but there's no real chance to examine this issue, since we can't unearth it from under all the gadgetry and senseless action.
Alfred Hitchcock made films about innocent people tossed into dangerous situations, and he did it right. He built tension gradually, and used action scenes when they served his purposes. With movies like North by Northwest, Hitchcock made an art of the thriller. In comparison, Enemy of the State is merely juvenile finger-painting.
In fact, this movie is so overblown and so lacking in subtlety, it shouldn't be titled Enemy of the State. It should be called Enemy of Restraint.
