Like The Siege , Enemy of the State is a movie where everybody is wired, except apparently Smith's wife, an ACLU attorney whose platitudinous protests against invasions of privacy would sound better in a public service announcement than on film. Before Smith can cry uncle, the spooks are all over him, planting taps in his shoes, bugs in his pants, homing devices in his car, cameras in his smoke alarm. A spy satellite tracks Smith, along with unmarked helicopters and enforcers waving fake police badges. Bet he runs circles around his learned opponents in court. For no good reason, Hackman blows up his secret headquarters in an abandoned factory, touching off billowing waves of fire.
Impossibilities chase down improbabilities.
Enemy of the State taps into the public's anxiety over the intrusive technology of the postmodern world, which can reduce old-fashioned walls of privacy to the flimsiest transparencies. Too bad it doesn't manifest those anxieties with greater coherence.