Knight and Day

Knight and Day was a good movie. If only it were that easy. I, like others were anticipating this to be the return of Tom Cruise to the realm of international thrillers. This is a far cry from the Mission Impossible franchise though. Cruise plays Roy Miller who is a secret agent in the middle of dispute with his agency and finds himself defending a “normal” woman, June Havens played by Cameron Diaz, who is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The film begins with quality action, and interesting plot twists. There was even a span of a few minutes where I could tolerate Cameron Diaz. Cruise’s performance has all of his normal traits including the charm, the wit and all that good stuff. I found him to still be convincing in the spy role, but making a movie less sophisticated and a step from his previous ventures made it seem a bit shallow. Plus, he has Diaz following him around almost getting them killed all the time. I kept wishing that Roy would leave June in a ditch somewhere because she was so damn annoying. Of course that didn’t happen because somehow Roy finds her “charming”. I wish Hollywood would realize that bumbling, and stupid does not always equal charming.

The plotline begins strong and fizzles out around half way when the audience learns the weak explanation of the film’s title and June somehow finds herself entitled to top secret information and thinks she is qualified for counter-espionage. Cruise’s strong performance is then pushed to the back burner and everything that was making the movie enjoyable is less prevalent.

So, now I will try and sum up this back and forth review of a movie I both loved and hated. Tom Cruise still has the acting ability to be a top billed lead in a film. Cameron Diaz does not and brings down Cruise with her unlikeable performance. The story is interesting but not able to maintain a level that would place it among classic action/romantic comedies. It always disappoints me when a movie is on the fence but can’t deliver in the final third to win over the audience. Unfortunately, this falls in that category. (6.6 out of 10)