Witness

By far, Harrison Ford’s finest performance…here as a Philadelphia cop who loses his partner in a shooting where the only witness is a little Amish boy. With his mother at a train station, the boy is in the bathroom at the same time the cop is shot…peering through the stall door, getting a good look at the shooter. Knowing the boy is in considerable danger, Ford’s detective tries hiding the boy and his mother in Philadelphia…but when that doesn’t work, he is forced to take them back home to Amish Country and stay with them for protection (and because he gets shot himself). Of course, this leads to some issues…mostly having to do with the mother’s father-in-law who has more than a few suspicious about this rough-and-ready city cop. Though the mother is recently widowed, the problem with Ford’s presence on the farm is not so much that he’s a man…but that he’s “English,” meaning not Amish. Everyone is on top of their game here…especially Ford who starts off as a smart, tough cop and has to somehow amend his characteristics to fit in with the Amish.