Actor tries to recreate himself as an action hero with comic flare in Knight and Day
Rattling around at the bottom of this outstretched tin cup of an action movie is a solid token of Hollywood's golden era.That may sound like an utter contradiction given the movie stars Tom Cruise -- a celebrity who successfully redefined the image of a leading man after Risky Business. From tall, dark and handsome, Cruise and his Ray-Bans offered up short, boyish sarcasm in Y-front briefs, and the world swooned -- at least for a while.
Tainted by rumours of religious rigidity, marital charades and self-righteous advice on how to deal with postpartum depression, Cruise's public persona started plunging with a single sofa leap. He's been trying to get back on top ever since, with limited success.
The period war movie Valkyrie let Cruise rejoin the deck of A-list players. Knight and Day gives Cruise a shot at winning back his losses, as well as his action movie mojo.
Directed by James Mangold, Knight and Day features Cruise in a role that reflects his own reality: Roy Miller (Cruise) is a man seeking redemption after a very serious misunderstanding. A government operative assigned to protect the life and research of a young engineer on the verge of perfecting battery power, Roy goes rogue at the top of the reel. When we meet him, he's actually on the run already.
His former colleagues at the FBI and CIA are closing in, but Roy still has time to play the charmer. He flirts with a pretty gal named June (Cameron Diaz) in the security queue, and when they both end up on the same plane, bad things start to happen.
Roy tries to keep a sense of humour about the body count and bloodshed, but his habit for shooting people between seductive winks makes June a little uneasy. She can't quite figure out if Roy is a good guy desperately trying to do the virtuous thing, or if he's a pathological liar who will do or say anything to get what he wants.
Of course, as viewers, we know what Roy is: A patchwork quilt of everyone from James Bond to Jason Bourne capable of defusing an A-bomb with, as he puts it, a Junior Mint.
Watching Cruise try to play the laid-back alpha male with the same cool factor as George Clooney and timeless class as Cary Grant turns out to be an entertainment in itself because he's trying so incredibly hard. Every time something explodes, Cruise does his best to look unfazed. Every time June gives him a lusty once-over, Roy tries to answer back with a confident, sexy snarl.
Cruise's self-awareness is palpable, but it doesn't cripple Mangold's movie. It just makes the suspension of disbelief something of a chore because the real villain in this piece isn't the Spanish arms dealer, or the corrupt G-man, or the hordes of submachinegun-toting enemies. It's Cruise's own image. Outflanked by Matt Damon in the action hero department and outgunned by Bradley Cooper in the hunk trunk, Cruise is trying to recreate himself as an action hero with a comic flare. It's a nice idea, but he's never had great thespian depth and wholesale recreation is well beyond his ability.
Diaz, who has little to do in this movie, runs circles around Cruise in every scene they share. Diaz can pull off goofy, which is the prevailing trait in June's character. She can also pull off concern, heartbreak and betrayal. We believe June believes in Roy, and as a result, we believe in the larger film as a whole.
It's no slice of genius. Knight and Day doesn't even make it into the ranks of a mediocre James Bond outing. But it does entertain, thanks to some smart writing, several silly shots of Cruise flexing his abs in beachwear and Diaz's supportive presence.