Knight and Day

(2010)

Dir: James Mangold

Just like Nicolas Cage, Tom Cruise is at his best when he’s crazy. It just so happens that he seems to be crazy all the time, so The Cruise is usually always worth watching. And he’s at his most watchable in years in James Mangold’s hilarious action romp Knight and Day.

Cruise plays Roy Miller, a suave super spy who just ‘happens’ to bump into Cameron Diaz’s charmingly lovely June Havens at the airport, from where they proceed to go on the run together, pursued by Peter Saarsgard’s dastardly CIA spook and Jordi Mollà’s arms dealer, all eager to get their hands on the films MacGuffin. And if you care at all about what it is, the film probably hasn’t worked for you. Because this is the Cruise and Diaz show. And what a lovely show it is. The pair has chemistry that crackles with dark comedic timing one minute and sizzles with sexuality the next. Both look to be having a blast in their respective roles, their tongues placed firmly in their cheeks as bullets and cars fly harmlessly by. Cruise is almost on Collateral form again here, if his assassin Vincent had fancied Jamie Foxx’s cab driver that is.

The action is gripping too, with an early car chase a particular delight, as Cruise hangs off the top of June’s car for dear life, hopping from vehicle to vehicle as though they were mere stepping stones. There is a failing though. The villains. Undeveloped and underused, Saarsgard and Mollà are left as your usual action bastards, doing very little but talking into phones, pointing guns and giving orders. Completely characterless.

But thankfully the two key performances score in a big way. Big, breezy and beautiful, Cruise and Diaz light up the screen for just under two nonstop hours in one of the most genuinely enjoyable and surprising flicks of the year.

*** ½ / *****

“Respect ... The Cock Cruise.”