Knight and Day

There's a lot to like in Knight and Day, and a lot that also disappoints, creating a very mixed experience. What director James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma) does get right is the tone. The movie is a perfect blend of light romantic comedy and frantic comic action. It's something filmmakers have been trying to do a lot this year, often with mediocre (Killers) or disastrous (The Bounty Hunter) results. This movie gets the mood right, and even finds two very likable stars to lead the film. Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz have worked together once before (in 2001's Vanilla Sky), but here they get to spend a lot more screen time together, and get to create some wonderful chemistry that draws us in instantly.

What does not work overall is the script by actor-turned-screenwriter Patrick O'Neil. When I say this, I don't mean to say that the dialogue is bad exactly. There are some charming and amusing lines, and the opening action sequence set on an airplane is exciting and off-the-wall funny. Where the script for Knight and Day falters is that it did not make me care about anything. I liked the performances by Cruise and Diaz, but the characters they are playing often resemble blank slates, since the script gives them very little time to talk. They're almost constantly running for their lives or involved in firefights. When they're not doing that, they're trying to fill us in on a plot, which seems severely underdeveloped and is completely incapable of drawing us in. There's an item that the bad guys want, and Cruise and Diaz have to run all around the world to make sure that the item does not fall into the wrong hands. That's about as deep as the plot goes. That's Step 1 in writing a screenplay. I wish O'Neil had gone on to Step 2, and dived more into his characters, who are completely likable, but featherweight in terms of personality or development.

But before all that happens, we're immediately drawn in by the charming and offbeat way the two leads are introduced. Diaz plays June Havens, a woman who is trying to board a plane in order to get back home in time for her sister's wedding. During her time at the airport, she has various "chance" encounters with a handsome man named Roy Miller (Cruise). Their encounters seem like accidents, but we later learn they were anything but. They meet again on the flight, which is surprisingly empty. They talk, there's a connection, and then June heads off to the restroom. While she is inside, Roy suddenly proceeds to kill everyone on board the plane, including the pilots. Is he psychotic? He tries to explain to June that he is a secret agent, and everyone on board the plane was there to kill him. And now that June has gotten involved and the people after him know who she is, he has to protect her as well. He explains all this while attempting to land the plane (the pilots are dead, remember), which he does in the middle of a cornfield, trying to make it look like an accident, while he and June walk away.

This is a great opening that not only immediately grabs our attention, but also gets us involved right from the start. We want to know more about Roy and, not only that, we want to see more of Roy and June together, since the actors are charming and very funny throughout this 20 minute sequence. Roy gives June some advice about how to avoid the people following him (since he's certain they'll now be following her as well) and drugs her. When June wakes up in her own apartment, she tries to go on with her life as normal and prepare for her sister's wedding. But, just as Roy told her, some men in black suits seem to be following her wherever she goes. They are led by an agent played by Peter Sarsgaard. He wants an object that he claims Roy stole from the agency, and could be dangerous. June doesn't know who to trust. Everything Roy said would happen with the men following her does happen, and he gives her some good advice on how to stay alive, and know what warning signs to look for. But, the agents following her tell a very convincing story about how Roy went rogue, and has lost all sense of reason.

Roy and June are obviously reunited when he helps her survive a high speed chase - A well-crafted scene, which loses some of its impact by its use of glaringly obvious green screen and CG effects. This begins a non-stop chase around the world as the two try to stay one step ahead of those pursuing them, and to find someone that Roy is determined to protect. None of this matters, since the screenplay is not developed enough. It's all plot manipulations set up to create a series of elaborate and entertaining, but somewhat hollow action sequences that are set in such far off places as Spain, Jamaica, and Austria. It's all well done and kind of fun, but I never got over the fact that there was nothing really going on underneath. When the villain's identity is revealed, I didn't care, because the movie hadn't even developed him as a real character. Even when his role in the plot is revealed, he still doesn't matter, as the movie doesn't feel the need to really use him. This makes Knight and Day a very odd and somewhat frustrating experience. We like the actors, we like the action, and there's fun to be had, but it's all built on a very hollow foundation.

I wanted the movie to slow down at times, and truly go deep into the two likable leads. Cruise and Diaz are great here. They're romantic, they're funny, and they play off each other well. But they never really get a chance to create real characters behind the back-and-forth comic banter. They're often too busy being on the run or being shot at for us to truly get to know them. We like what we see, and we want to see more. Still, they're obviously having a lot of fun up on the screen. It's great to see Tom Cruise being allowed to be charming and funny again. It's something he hasn't gotten a chance to do in a while. As for Cameron Diaz, she's very likable, even if she doesn't really do a good job at convincing us as to why she's so willing to trust Roy and go with him, even though he repeatedly drugs her and deceives her. My guess? She goes with him because Roy just happens to look like Tom Cruise.

I read somewhere that Knight and Day is a script that's been languishing in "development hell" for about 10 years or so, and has gone through a variety of different approaches and stars. (At one point, it was planned as a vehicle for Adam Sandler, and even Chris Tucker was attached.) Considering how long it's been in development, it's sort of disappointing that it's not more satisfying. Oh, it's certainly fun for what it is and works as escapism, but it doesn't work enough for me to fully recommend it. It's a very near miss, though. This is a fun and lightweight romantic action comedy. But even a movie such as this needs a structure to hold it all together.

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