Tom almost has a good knight
- Source: Global Times
- [11:23 July 12 2010]
- Comments
Tom Cruise as Roy Miller and Cameron Diaz as June Havens in Knight and Day. Photo: IC
By Nick Muzyczka
Knight and Day almost works and the fact that it doesn't is a real shame. In a year when the majority of the efforts from Hollywood have fallen well below expectations, here is a movie that could have offered something fresh, but has unfortunately fallen prey to extreme shortsightedness.
The performances from the noticeably aging duo of Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz are central to this slightly bizarre creation from James Mangold, a director with a short though fairly solid back catalogue (3:10 to Yuma, Walk the Line).
In Knight and Day we follow the story of Roy Miller (Cruise), who is either a super-spy or a highly talented crackpot in his attempts to protect June Havens (Diaz) and a revolutionary "perpetual energy" battery from the hands of various law enforcement agencies and international drug dealers.
The plot holes are initially devastating and laugh-out-loud stupid. As the story develops, however, it becomes apparent that something quite curious is happening stylistically.
This is not a spoof by any means, nor is it a romantic comedy, action movie, spy flick or knowingly eccentric oddity, but a difficult-to-pin-down amalgamation.
It is this blending of styles in combination with the infrequent moments of connection between the two lead actors that constitutes the movie's potential appeal.
Mangold adds a few nice thematic touches, including his treatment of the numerous scenes in which Cruise drugs Diaz because her nervousness is compromising their escape from a precarious situation, and he finds it easier to save her if she is unconscious.
While nothing in the movie is truly memorable in terms of comedy, there are some funny exchanges and set pieces.
At the screening attended by the Global Times, the audience was frequently amused, with the humor spread quite evenly between laughing with the film and at it.
Knight and Day has the potential to appeal to a broad audience, with very standard romcom tropes fitting quite snugly alongside action scenes.
The whole construction seems aware of its own status as a peculiarity and appears to enjoy laughing at itself.
The fashionable spy movie device of changing international locations every two minutes is performed tongue-in-cheek (though far too many times), while the repetitive capture and escape theme lends an extra satirical edge.
The movie feels rushed, almost as if it is a work in progress.
There is some smart dialogue sprinkled here and there, but the interactions between characters mostly fall flat.
The speed at which scenes change leave very little room for creating depth, especially in terms of the supporting characters - a thoroughly uninteresting bunch of stereotypes desperate for some personality.
A senseless, dreary plot does not help matters. Although we are not really meant to take this movie seriously, the move into a semi-fantastic realm requires a good deal more style than is forthcoming.
In a pallid scene set in Austria, Mangold missed the opportunity to explore a world of shadows, a setting perfectly continuous with the losing consciousness theme.
Unfortunately Knight and Day refuses to sit still, leaving Cruise no choice other than to run about aimlessly on rooftops for a minute and a half before the action switches to a beach somewhere, or an airport, or some random detention center, or somewhere else that no one cares about.
Cruise, whose nervous energy actually makes him a good casting choice for the role of quick-thinking, slightly sociopathic charmer Roy Miller, makes the best out of a pretty miserable set of tools.
Diaz is less sharp, though could have been worse given the narrow focus of her charac-ter. She is an average woman continually thrust into harm's way and almost nothing else.
