Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
This will not be a long review; there's really no reason. There's no deep, existentialist examination of the human condition going on with Tom Cruise's action-comedy KNIGHT AND DAY, and that's okay. I actually get a great deal of joy watching Cruise play fast and loose on screen; when he wants to be, he can be a great comic actor. The reason I never took to the Mission: Impossible films like I wanted to (except maybe the third one) is that they took themselves so damn seriously, and they really didn't need to.
KNIGHT AND DAY almost floats off the screen with cottonball weightlessness, but Cruise and his sly grin--and the attitude that fuels that grin--make this film a harmless couple hours spent watching attractive people pretend to get placed in the midst of some dangerous situations and come out the other side smiling and a little bit in love. I probably should have said "Spoiler Alert" right there, because there's no way you could have guessed any of that. Sorry. But please, even when Cruise is shot in this film, it's treated with the urgency of a kid in a Band-Aid commercial. Oopsie!
If there's an actual plot to KNIGHT AND DAY, I totally missed it. Cruise is being chased down by assassins being led by Peter Sarsgaard because…no, see I knew this, and now I've lost it. I'm not quite sure why they're chasing him. I think there's a battery involved. No, seriously. Cruise meets June Havens (Cameron Diaz) on a plane going from Wichita to Boston, even though she's not supposed to be on the plane. He lovingly hijacks her person in an effort to protect her from the government baddies who clearly won't believe her when she tells them she doesn't know who Cruise's Roy Miller actually is. As much as Cruise's cavalier attitude toward even the most dangerous circumstances is enjoyable, it's also part of my problem with the film. We're never quite sure what we're supposed to be taking as a serious threat and what is a silly distraction.
If any of this set up sounds kinda, sorta, vaguely familiar, that's because the set up is very similar to that of the recent Ashton Kutcher-Katherine Heigl film KILLERS. And shame on you for knowing that. I get paid to see this shit; what's your excuse? KNIGHT AND DAY is a whole lot better a movie, but the jet setting and screaming, ditzy female lead elements are uncomfortably similar. Diaz can be a fun addition to a comedy, but her dumb jokes and perpetual blonde-ness (no offense to blondes out there...call me) were really pumping the brakes on an action film that wanted so desperately to really peel out and be a rip-roaring good time.
There are a couple of enjoyable action sequences--a car chase during a running of the bulls in Spain comes to mind--but it became mind numbing after a while at how little the usually reliable director, James Mangold (3:10 TO YUMA, WALK THE LINE), seemed to care about this movie making any damn sense. By the time Paul Dano shows up somewhere in the mid-section of the story, I was shaking my head and wondering what the point of all this was. It's not so much that the plot is confusing; I just didn't get what all the fuss was about.
Another truly annoying element to KNIGHT AND DAY was the cutesy repeated gag of Cruise drugging Diaz so she wouldn't be such a pain in the ass as he attempted to save her. So we get these dream-like sequences of her falling in and out of sleep while crazy action sequences are happening around her. The first time they used device, I laughed. After that, I could tell the filmmakers thought they had something original on their hands, and they felt compelled to repeat it several times. Thanks, folks.
But the truth is that, despite its many flaws, KNIGHT AND DAY made me laugh quite a bit, especially in its first hour. Sure, the film craps out by the end, but there is something contained within these walls worth checking out. The film doesn't exactly alter my feelings about how cruddy this summer has been over all, but it doesn't come across as total junk either. I'm split nearly down the middle on this, but I'm recommending it ever so mildly because I want to encourage Cruise to do more films that aim to be fun. He should just try and find slightly better material next time.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcool.com
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