The old Tom Cruise is back. And reunited with his Vanilla Sky co-star, Cameron Diaz, we have a played-for-fun summer spyfest comedy. Rush out to see it.
Knight and Day (Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard, Viola Davis, Paul Dano) – I just saw True Lies again. Or at least that is the movie to which I would most compare Knight and Day, a fun spy film/thriller/love story/action chick flick. The Arnold part is played by Tom Cruise, who returns to his roots. He is funny, tough, buff, and caring a la Jerry McGuire and Risky Business. The plot itself is more Mission Impossible. Cruise is a super secret agent who appears to have “gone rogue” as he possesses a miniature battery that has enough power to light up a city and more. Developed by an eccentric kid (played by Paul Dano of There Will Be Blood), Cruise is either protecting the prodigy or selling the new technology to an international arms dealer. To get through airport security, he befriends a beautiful, vulnerable woman played by Cameron Diaz, who starred with Cruise in Vanilla Sky. On screen, they make a beautiful couple, but the two have more in common than that. They both can act, play it serious while winking at the camera, and give plausibility to an implausible story. Cars wreck, things blow up, and yes, Tom gets to run in several scenes (after all, every Cruise movie has scenes where he runs as fast as possible). And veteran Peter Sarsgaard plays Cruise’s fellow agent who may or may not have turned to the dark side. Same for his boss, the agency director, played by Viola Davis (who seems to be everywhere since her Academy Award-nominated performance in Doubt).
Everyone plays this action movie as a fun comedy, which reminds me most of the Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold comedy spy flick I mentioned earlier. There is a little element of Conspiracy Theory with Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts. Cruise plays Roy Miller is the eccentric way Gibson played Jerry Fletcher. Cruise is really at his best here and looks more comfortable than in his recent Valkyrie. Diaz is solid even if her co-star outshines her here. At 37, she is almost a mature screen actress. This is fine summer escapism that left me with only one question: I understand the “Knight” (the movie reveals it in the third act) but not the “Day” unless it is simply a play on the phrase and Cole Porter song Night and Day. Make sure you see this fun and exciting film all in one.