Knight And Day
A few years ago, a little movie came out called Mr. And Mrs. Smith, which promoted itself in the ads as a romantic action comedy where a man and a woman who were involved with each other took part in a fast-paced action adventure storyline. Unfortunately, that movie failed MISERABLY due mostly to a terrible, incoherent script, smug, unlikable leads, and a complete and utter lack of anything resembling charm. However, THIS film, released last year to theatres, took on the same basic formula and subgenre, and by comparison succeeds wonderfully. Tom Cruise (considered to be on the comeback trail here after his media debacle with Katie Holmes) stars as a mysterious yet smooth secret agent with numerous bad guys on his tail who hooks up with an unassuming female mechanic (Cameron Diaz) en route to her sisterâs wedding, and thus getting her caught up in the intrigue that starts with an ambush on an airplane followed by said planeâs subsequent crash, and continues at a brisk pace, with kinetic action sequences, (truly) witty repartee, and most importantly, an earnest chemistry between the two stars that works well and doesnât seem forced. No surprise since Cruise usually seems to work best when his performances are relaxed and heâs not constantly angling himself as Oscar bait, while Diaz plays the âoh my god whatâs happeningâ civilian part to a tee. It turns out that Cruise is being pursued because he is in possession of a small but very powerful battery capable of powering an entire city which will change the energy crisis forever and was invented by a twenty something kid (Paul Dano) whom Cruise is keeping protected as well. The only real misstep is in the casting of the primary villain, as Peter Sarsgaard is given nothing to do as the rogue agent who set up Cruise and comes off as too goofy to be any kind of viable threat (even though we presume that he has the same level of training and skill as Tom does). Some may say that the action and fight scenes are unrealistic, until it dawns on the viewer that much of the film is pretty much an extended spoof of The Bourne Identity, which is where the tongue in cheek nature of the material comes to work perfectly. Even deeper though, is the primary motive for much of Cruiseâs actions, as even though his CIA superiors insist to Diaz that he has had his human feelings and empathy âtrained out of himâ, it is that very humanity he still clings to that leads him to be so protective of Diaz. And why? Because he LIKES her, simply put, and that dynamic is the basis for a large part of the charm here, which overall, makes this a very enjoyable venture that satisfies a male viewerâs need for action and a female viewerâs need for romance in a day and age where fun popcorn movies usually turn out to be crapâŚ
9/10