I enjoyed the new Tom Cruise
thriller “Jack Reacher," and I'm not a big Tom Cruise fan. Since I rarely
have enough time to read the right stuff, I haven’t perused any of the seventeen
Jack Reacher novels about a former U.S. Army investigator who roams the country like a lone wolf. Sounds like Cruise is prospecting for
another franchise to topline. Award-winning, bestselling author Lee Child--who writes those novels--is an interesting fellow himself. Actually, Jim Grant is his real name, and he
was born in 1954. A former Granada Television producer, he hails from Great
Britain, but has since moved to America.
He has acknowledged that Cruise looks nothing like his literary
character. Nevertheless, he has nothing but praise this Hollywood
adaptation by writer & director Christopher McQuarrie. Chris Hemsworth, Dwayne Johnson, and Liam
Neeson might have been better as Child's hero. Meantime, this
intelligent but contrived murder/mystery couldn’t have been released at a more inopportune time. It will be interesting to see how other major
Hollywood blockbusters about gun-toting heroes fare in the wake of the Sandy
Hook Elementary School massacre. The
worst thing you can say about “Jack Reacher” is that it is a gritty but formulaic
police procedural with murky bad guys conducting calculated criminal acts of aggression. No
maniacs break into elementary schools and murder
innocent lambs without a qualm. As exemplary as "Jack Reacher" is, this
Paramount Pictures release doesn't eclipse better Cruises epics, such as
"Collateral," "Top Gun," "Mission Impossible 2," "Mission Impossible:
Ghost Protocol," and "The Last Samurai."
Basically, “Jack Reacher” (*** OUT OF ****) qualifies as an
energetic, above-average, but predictable murder mystery. Tom Cruise and attractive leading lady
Rosamund Pike kindle little chemistry.
At an imposing 130 minutes, “Jack Reacher” couldn’t have made time for a
romance between the itinerant hero and the district attorney’s virtuous
daughter. Several scenes are
questionable and some things just don’t seem right. Happily, “Jack Reacher” boasts more hits than
misses. A restrained Cruise appears to be
channeling Paul Newman with his laconic performance, but “Jack Reacher” isn’t a
role that fits him like a glove.
Basically, this Spartan, low-key thriller could have used a rewrite or
two to sharpen it. Moreover, if screen
veteran Robert Duvall—long past his prime—hadn’t shown up for the
bullet-blasting finale, “Jack Reacher” wouldn’t be worth jack. Comparisons between the film and a synopsis
of the novel indicate writer & director Christopher McQuarrie hasn’t
deviated drastically from the source material.
Consequently, “Jack Reacher” amounts to an origins epic. Cruise plays an enigmatic character, not
unlike the Jim Caviezel character John Reese in CBS-TV series “Person of Interest.” Resourceful guys like these two live off the
grid. The chief difference is Reacher
shuns the kind of high tech support Reese has in the form of computer genius
Harold Finch.
When a deadly sniper guns down several people in broad
daylight without warning in Pittsburgh, the local authorities get a break and
capture the unsuspecting assassin. The
local District Attorney tries to bully a confession out of their suspect,
ex-Army sniper James Barr (Joseph Sikora of “Safe”), but Barr refuses to
cooperate. Instead, he asks them to
contact Jack Reacher. Before his case
comes up for trial, Barr is badly beaten up in prison and his life hangs in the
balance. Out of nowhere, Jack Reacher
materializes when everybody least expects him. Moments as coincidental as these
made me roll my eyes. Reacher discusses
the case with the D.A., and later with Barr’s attorney, Helen Rodin (Rosamund
Pike of “Die Another Day”), who has taken the case against her father’s stern
advice. Repeatedly, Reacher assures both
Helen and the D.A. that he is not a defense witness. He explains to Helen that Barr left the Army
after going on a shooting spree when he didn’t have a chance to rack up any
kills in his overseas combat zone. The
more that Reacher investigates the shootings, the more he comes to believe that
Barr is a patsy. Nothing that the real
shooter did corresponds with anything that Barr would have done as a trained
sniper. Before it is over with, our hero
reexamines the casualties of the massacre and finds the answer to a cover-up
that looks like it goes into the highest levels of law enforcement in
Pittsburgh, i.e., the Office of the District Attorney.
Make no mistake, “Jack Reacher” isn’t a high-octane
actioneer, but it is both believable and reasonably complex. McQuarrie keeps our trim, clean-cut hero
jumping through flaming hoops throughout most of the action. An exciting, urban car chase and a
no-nonsense street fight enliven the action when a variety of characters aren’t
conferring over the business at hand.
Among film geeks, Christopher McQuarrie is known as the guy who wrote
the classic thriller “The Usual Suspects.”
Not only did McQuarrie not adapt Lee Child’s crime thriller about a
mysterious “Lone Ranger” type who spurns all twenty-first century conveniences
to solve crime, but he also directed it.
McQuarrie proves once again that he is a better writer than a
director. Some scenes play better than
others. The supporting cast, including
Richard Jenkins as the District Attorney and David Oyelowo as a Pittsburgh
detective, are good. “Jack Reacher” is
worth seeing at least once in a movie theater.
Tom Cruise discusses the case with Rosamund Pike while Lee Child, making a cameo as a Pittsburgh policeman, watches them.
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