Three stars. Rating: PG-13, for violence, profanity, fleeting nudity and some drug content
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 1.2.13
Director/scripter Christopher
McQuarrie’s Jack Reacher is a serviceable thriller: standard-issue Hollywood
suspense, with Tom Cruise delivering his usual charm while working his way through
a murder mystery that unfolds with the customary blend of plot twists, car
chases, gunplay and bare-knuckle fist fights.
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| After a brief stint in the slammer, Reacher (Tom Cruise, left) collects his meager belongings, while defense attorney Helen Rodin (Rosamund Pike) wonders what their next move should be. Take note of the desk sergeant signing off on Reacher's release: That's author Lee Child. |
In other words, a reasonably
diverting way to spend two hours.
That said, fans of Lee Child’s
Jack Reacher novels will hate this film. With good cause.
His star wattage notwithstanding,
Cruise is wrong for the role. Reacher is, quite famously, 6 feet 5 inches tall;
he sports a 50-inch chest, weighs between 210 and 250 pounds, and has hands
“like two supermarket chickens.” When Reacher chooses to attack a thug, the
impact — to borrow from Child’s prose — is akin having a mountain fall on the
guy.
Cruise is 5 feet 7 and might hit
170, dripping wet. To say he lacks Reacher’s all-essential physical presence is
gross understatement.
At one point during this film, as
investigating police are trying to determine whether Reacher is staying at a
particular motel, the desk clerk immediately suggests a specific room,
insisting they “couldn’t miss this guy.” That line might have made sense in the
book, when describing the actual Reacher; it’s a daft bit of dialogue here,
when referencing Cruise.
During the months leading up to
this film’s release, Child — well aware of the casting controversy — made the
magazine and talk-show rounds, attempting peremptory damage control. He pointed
out that Reacher has three salient characteristics: He’s always the smartest
guy in the room; he’s still and quiet, yet menacing; and he’s huge. Child quite
reasonably pointed out that Hollywood inevitably is about compromise, and that
getting two of out three should be acceptable.
Fair enough, and yes: Cruise’s
Reacher moves stealthily, even when at rest, and he radiates an intriguing aura
of latent menace. And yes, he always seems to be the smartest guy in the room.
But that’s only because most of
the other people in the room, in this film, are idiots.
