Review: Knight and Day

Roy Miller (Tom Cruise) is a highly skilled spy who gets framed for the theft of the "zef" -- a perpetual energy source that can power a whole city and is about the size of 3-volt battery -- and kidnapping its inventor, Simon Feck (Paul Dano), who's barely out of high school, by fellow agent Fitzgerald (Peter Sarsgaard) and his cronies.

While on the run from Fitzgerald, Miller unintentionally recruits hapless ingenue, June Havens (Cameron Diaz), who grudgingly enters Miller's cloak-and-dagger world and eventually aids him in his quest to clear his name and protect Simon and his invention.

Having watched the highly enjoyable "Kate and Leopold", one of several films directed by James Mangold, I went into his latest offering (at time of writing) with high expectations which, unfortunately, were not met. Not by a long shot. I found "Knight and Day" to be unnecessarily long. I think, if the copious amounts of time spent on fleshing out the two main characters -- Miller and June's relationship and Miller's backstory -- had been enjoyable and genuinely enhanced the story, perhaps I wouldn't have noticed the long running time. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for well-developed characters as long as the journey is enjoyable, moving and/or thought-provoking, and relevant. But here I felt most of the scenarios that Miller and June found themselves in and most of their interactions, were just meant to generate cheap laughs and no more. I'd give examples if I remembered any. There was a fair bit of chemistry between Cruise and Diaz and they're performances were adequate, but I feel Miller and June could have been so much better.

Unconventional beauty, Viola Davis, who played an FBI director here, kind of stood out, although her role was all too similar to the one she played in "Law Abiding Citizen" -- an iron maiden yelling at subordinates to get their act together and deal with the problem. Paul Dano was just a nervous mass being led this way and that, grossly underused I think.

I found the visual effects somewhat dodgy. An example is when Miller and June are fleeing a herd of stampeding bulls on a snazzy motorcycle, on the cobbled streets of Spain -- when the camera cuts to a close-up of Miller and June on the bike, one can too easily tell that they're not on location and that the background is fake. And when a vehicle is overturned by the stampeding bulls, it's quite clear that the bulls aren't real, that they're computer-generated. I'm not sure whether the overturned car was CG too. The stampede sequence could have been far more convincing -- a wasted opportunity.

The action sequences, whether it be a gunfight or car-chase or whatever, were all noise and no "art" -- there was no intricacy and ingenuity of staging of say, the action in a John Woo film (I'm not saying that everyone has to be like Mr. Woo, but it's nice to see a bit of ambition and imagination), and no real excitement.

It is interesting to note that "M:I:II", which starred Tom Cruise and other notables, has scenes set in Spain, during a festival where the Saints are commemorated -- by burning effigies of them no less -- and here in "Knight and Day", Cruise finds himself in Spain again, during another prominent festival, this time of a bovine nature.

Film composer, John Powell, whose best composition to date, in my opinion, is the music in John Woo's 1997 baroque action opus "FACE/OFF", created a snazzy score for this film. It's ironically and comically relaxed and soft, in action sequences that would normally be punctuated by tense, pounding percussion. And in the aforementioned stampede, the score quite appealingly takes on the flavor of Spain -- it has a beautiful flamenco-esque feel.

"Knight and Day" is very flawed, but it has its good points too; like the score, Miss Diaz in a sexy red bikini, some of the dialogue, Cruise doing some of his own stunts; particularly his driving, the postcard-worthy imagery of the ending etc. But these are, unfortunately, overshadowed by the former, for me anyway.

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