Knight and Day
As the danger escalates during their global adventure, June Havens (Cameron Diaz) finds herself increasingly drawn to the mysterious Roy Miller (Tom Cruise).
Guy meets girl. Guy plants stuff on girl. Girl gets through airport security an unwitting accomplice. Guy kidnaps girl. Girl gets hysterical. Girl falls in love with guy anyway. This is the Stockholm Syndrome plot of Knight and Day, and countless other action/rom-com/adventure flicks that treat the woman as the tag-a-long idiot, rather than a intelligent, whole human being.
Written by Patrick O’Neill and directed by James Mangold, this cookie-cutter adventure begins with one of the most cliché opening shots—a close-up of the back of Roy Miller’s (Tom Cruise) head followed by him walking away from the camera. He bumps into June Havens (Cameron Diaz). June gets bumped from her flight. However, we discover there’s perhaps more to Roy with a cut to Agent Fitzgerald (Peter Sarsgaard); he wonders how (and why) Roy managed to get her on the same flight.
The flight is booked but most of the seats on board are empty. Is this a terrorist hijacking in the works? Is Roy a Federal Marshal trailing them? We don’t exactly know at first. We do know that June is a classic car enthusiast, as evidenced by the carburetors she’s carrying through security. She’s a regular Mona Lisa Vito, minus the ticking biological clock. But who is Roy Miller, and why does his fake name sound more real than “June Havens”? The film makers could’ve had fun with that.
The standard good cop-bad cop chase ensues, except it’s unclear which is which. The chase takes them to numerous exotic locales and lavish hotels. But the effects throw us into physics-defying action so preposterous that one half of the movie undermines the other. We can’t be sure if we’re watching a re-hash of Mission: Impossible (also starring Tom Cruise) or Spider-Man.
The plot involves a device of such immense value that several governments are after it. I won’t spoil who is on which side, because the movie does at least a reasonable job of playing the shell game with the various players’ intentions that the suspense is a substantial component of the film. There’s a considerable error in casting, however, because we know that Peter Sarsgaard effectively portrays scumbags (Flightplan). His beady eyes and scratchy, little voice scream treachery. Tom Cruise, on the other hand, plays a comical nut rather convincingly—for reasons obvious to anyone who has seen the infamous Oprah footage. Cameron Diaz is the hysterical damsel along for the ride. Not one actor plays contrary to their type, and this is a hitch in an otherwise entertaining film.
An important lesson in the action genre is contrast. Tension arises as a result of friction between opposing story or character elements. An action hero works best as an ordinary individual, around whom extraordinary events are taking place. Think of John McClane (Bruce Willis) in Die Hard. This gives the actor something to push against.
This film opens with Roy Miller in the opposite position—crazy man in otherwise normal situations. But once cars start vaulting into the air, bulls stampede, and armed assassins start rappelling from the ceilings of warehouses, Roy just disappears into the scenery and, while she reluctantly yet competently wields a gun here and there, June’s non-stop histrionics don’t help. Her character becomes genuinely resourceful after the film’s climax, but only as a joke to parallel the predicament Miller thrusts her into at the beginning. But, if you have been suffering crackpot secret agent withdrawal, or longing for inept charm with a mile-wide smile, then this might be your weekend.
Knight and Day • Dolby® Digital surround sound in select theatres • Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 • Running Time: 110 minutes • MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of action violence throughout, and brief strong language. • Distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
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