Jack Reacher
Starring: Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins
Directed and written by: Christopher McQuarrie
Parental guidance: Violence, coarse language
Running time: 130 minutes
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
The first thing about Jack Reacher is his size. In a series of adventure novels by Lee Childs, Reacher ? a former soldier who now drifts through America, righting wrongs and rearranging jaws ? is 6-foot-5 and weighs 250 pounds. In Jack Reacher, the film adaptation of the book One Shot, he is played by Tom Cruise, who is 5-foot-8. Yes, he?s short, but don?t worry: the movie is really long.
It?s also pretty entertaining, giving the limitations of its unassailable hero and a vision of the world that allows for baroque villains who prove their will to live by chewing off their own fingers. That guy, named The Zec, is played with quiet intensity by none other than Werner Herzog, the German director. If you?ve seen his movies (and I?m particularly thinking of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans) you?ll realize that it?s a bit of an exaggeration. Herzog is probably capable of nothing more than chewing off other people?s fingers.
Cruise, though, despite being slightly undersized, fills the bill. He?s proven his action hero bona fides in a series of Mission: Impossible films, and ? speaking of quiet intensity ? he has a something in his stare that makes you think he?s 6-foot-5 by some measure of human achievement. Cruise has become a figure of fun in recent years, but as an actor he?s all business ? and that?s Jack Reacher from head to toe (or, in Cruise?s case, from head to mid-knee.) Reacher doesn?t exceed his grasp.
The movie begins with a sequence that seems badly timed given the recent events in Connecticut: a man drives into a Pittsburgh parking garage, emerges with an assault rifle, and shoots five people seemingly at random. The scene of one of them, a young woman carrying a child, is frighteningly evocative. It?s a coincidence, but an uncomfortable one that raises troubling questions about violence and the movies.
The police quickly arrest James Barr (Joseph Sikora), who has left his fingerprints and clues everywhere, but he won?t confess. ?Get Jack Reacher,? he tells District Attorney Alex Rodin (Richard Jenkins) and detective Emerson (David Oyelowo.)
This provides the chance for a lot of exposition about who this Jack Reacher is: a shadowy former army investigator with a slew of bravery medals and a reputation for finding the truth at all costs. He?s difficult to find because he wanders the country with no luggage, no credit cards, and no connections. All he has is charisma, intelligence, a prodigious memory, a lethal right hand and chest muscles that must cost Cruise several hours a day in the gym.
Reacher has connections with Barr from their days serving in Iraq, and he agrees to stick around and help his attorney Helen Rodin (played with cool intelligence by Rosamund Pike), the estranged daughter of the D.A.. Reacher himself is something of a cipher beyond his single-minded pursuit of the truth, so Helen provides the father-and-daughter drama of the modern thriller.
Writer-director Christopher McQuarrie (The Way of the Gun) establishes the character early, with some clever sleuthing (hey, he?s smart!) and then a bar fight in which Reacher shows us ? in the manner of heroic drifters of all genres ? that he is not a man to be taken lightly, not if you value your testicles (hey, he?s tough too!) It?s a confrontation custom-made for Cruise, who seems like just the sort of guy who might be underestimated by the toughs: would they so readily pick on someone the size of a linebacker?
There?s a hint of romance in the air, but Jack Reacher isn?t that kind of man, and this isn?t that kind of movie. It?s a fantasy about a man who sets his own rules and finds justice in the barrel of a gun, and that doesn?t leave room for a lot of love. It also doesn?t leave a lot of room for such niceties as Miranda rights and so on: Jack Reacher is a vigilante, a walking, fighting symbol of our desire for revenge against the overwhelming forces of evil out there.
The result is a transparent mystery solved by an opaque hero. It may be too generic for a promised movie franchise, but if it does last, it will be fun watching Cruise grow into the role.
CAPSULE _ Jack Reacher: Tom Cruise stars as the fictional drifter who solves crimes and rights wrongs while remaining a ghostly cipher. In this case, he helps comely lawyer Rosamund Pike solve the case of a sniper who has shot five people, apparently at random. The implausibilities mount, but Cruise brings intensity to a violent revenge fantasy. 3 out of 5. Jay Stone
Source: http://o.canada.com/2012/12/20/movie-review-jack-reacher/
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