I like things about this movie. I like Rosamund Pike, and how she speaks in a vaguely southern accent, and how she wears all of her emotions right on her face. I like David Oyelowo’s stoic certainty. I like Werner Herzog even though it doesn’t seem like he can act. I like how there is very little music. I like how the movie tells us what people are doing and thinking, not by having them speak but by having the camera focus on what they are doing or how they are reacting to situations. The movie also contains one of the few great car chase / escape sequences I’ve seen. Jack Reacher is sparse and concise in a way that makes it stylish.
I have two problems. One is with the Jack Reacher character. I don’t know anything about the book series upon which this movie is based but at least in the movie he is kind of a dick. I think as an audience member I am supposed to interpret this as intelligent yet practical, but really he’s just a dick. He is patronizing and pretty rude. Maybe there’s supposed to be charm in that. I didn’t get that from Tom Cruise’s performance.
The other problem is that the story doesn’t make any sense. The movie disguises this for the first 90 minutes or so by creating a pretty compelling mystery. But the pieces just don’t add up and the storywriters are forced to try and wrap everything up with a pretty disappointing action set piece.
Anyway, I think it’s ok. There’s a sequel being made, which seems weird, because I don’t think I’ve met anyone who saw this movie. But it doesn’t really seem like I’m the intended audience (the movie’s worldview is unabashedly libertarian) so the fact that I found it enjoyable at all probably means something.
Man, the movies Tom Cruise has starred in over the last 10 years are underwhelming. I’ve noticed something else: the “A Tom Cruise Production” tag at the beginning of most of his recent films. I don’t know that that’s related, but I don’t know that it isn’t.
Next: Oblivion
Every Tom Cruise Movie 