Mindless Fun
By Aasiya Kazi | Arts & Culture | Movies | Published 14 years ago
Knight and Day is a non-stop action film peppered with romance and comedy. Despite having all the ingredients of the quintessential popcorn flick — Tom Cruise in the lead with Cameron Diaz as his leading lady, a host of action scenes and exotic locations — it fails to captivate.
The story revolves around a ‘charming’ spy who lands an attractive, outdoorsy-type girl into trouble and then goes on to save her again and again.
Cruise stars as Roy Miller, a super spy-turned-fugitive who, in his evasion of the FBI (he’s got a valuable device they want), runs into June Evans (Diaz) at the airport when she is on her way to Boston for her sister’s wedding. In no time, she becomes his unwitting partner, who ends up touring the world. She’s with Miller when he lands a plane whose entire crew he has killed after they attack him in mid-air. Then he rescues her from a group of government agents in the middle of Boston. The duo winds up on an island in the Azores, then in the Austrian Alps, before finishing up in Spain.
Director James Mangold manages to produce a film that is somewhere between a screwball comedy and an action extravaganza. But it lacks romantic energy and its drab script leaves a lot to be desired. The chemistry between the couple is lacklustre and the innuendo half-hearted. The film’s saving grace is its breezy pace and seeing Cruise in a different kind of role — a diversion from his usual serious ones.
Mangold is celebrated for his diversity. He directed Angelina Jolie to an Oscar win in 1999 with Girl, Interrupted; in 2003 he directed the John Cusack-thriller Identity and in 2005 he directed Walk the Line, which led to five Oscar nominations and a win for another leading lady Reese Witherspoon. His last film was the two-time Oscar nominated western remake 3:10 to Yuma.
He obviously wasn’t aiming for an Oscar with this mindless entertainment.
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