Certification. 12A
Running Time. 1 hour 49 mins
Director. James Mangold
Cast. Tom Cruise, Paul Dano, Viola Davis, Cameron Diaz, Gal Gadot, Jordi Mollà, Peter Sarsgaard.
Rating. 24%
Director and screenwriter, James Mangold has an impressive filmography, beginning in the 1990s with Cop Land and Girl, Interrupted, through to more recent work, Logan and Ford v Ferrari. To date, Mangold has directed two different actresses who have won Academy Awards for memorable performances in his films - Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted (1999) and Reese Witherspoon in Walk The Line (2005).
Amongst this impressive back catalogue lurks Knight And Day, starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz - a 2010 romantic action comedy, in the mould of Romancing The Stone, True Lies, and Mr & Mrs Smith.
The film suffers from a flimsy plot and scant flirtation between the two leading actors, perhaps because of a noticeable lack of chemistry between them. Both have performed stronger in similar roles; Tom Cruise is more convincing throughout the Mission Impossible franchise and Cameron Diaz is infinitely more spirited in the Charlie's Angels franchise.
The hollow storyline is not aided by the repeated drugging of June (Cameron Diaz), every time the situation becomes perilous or precarious. The result, June wakes up safe and sound, more often than not in a different country with little or no explanation. If Knight And Day is indeed an action movie, then the audience needs to see the action. Perhaps more concerning is the underlying misogyny associated with this tactic. June is portrayed as a whimpering, docile, damsel-in-distress. And whilst there is nothing substantially wrong with this type of character, if the character lacks substance or intelligence, then they soon become tiresome and irrelevant. June is knocked out five times during the course of Knight And Day. I repeat, five times.
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