A film review by Craig J. Koban January 6, 2013 |
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JACK REACHER
Jack: Tom Cruise / Cash: Robert Duvall / Rodin: Richard Jenkins / Helen: Rosamund Pike / The Zec: Werner Herzog Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie / Based on the novels by Lee Child |
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Let’s clear up a few things about JACK REACHER right from the get-go here. Firstly,
there’s the controversy of the title character’s casting that has
certainly ruffled the feathers of many a fan of the 17 books written by Lee
Child featuring him. To
devotees of this literary source material, the casting of the relatively
small in stature (5’7”) Tom Cruise as the 6’5" blonde haired
Adonis that is Reacher (as Child envisioned him) is a reason to cry a resounding
foul. Yet, for the rest of
the filmgoing public not familiar with ONE SHOT (which this film is directly
based on) and all of the other Reacher novels, this hullabaloo is much ado
about nothing, because Cruise – as a performer – creates such a
commanding and invigorating screen presence as Reacher that I never really
questioned his casting at all. Plus,
at 50, the eternally youthful looking star still appears like he’s made of
granite. As
for the film around the Reacher character himself?
Well, in many ways, JACK REACHER is not too unlike its main
anti-hero: muscular, no-nonsense, hard-hitting, sneakily effective, and viscerally aggressive.
It's action-thriller that combines juicy elements of
a murder mystery and a hard boiled action film.
Even better is that it’s all quarterbacked with a slick, assured,
and workmanlike old school proficiency and polish by Christopher McQuarrie,
who previously won an Oscar for co-writing THE USUAL SUSPECTS and has
already worked with Cruise before as a screenwriter on the criminally
undervalued VALKYRIE.
McQuarrie – also serving as the adapting screenwriter of ONE SHOT
– not only crafts a relatively simple story of sadistic revenge, but he
also tells a complex and well oiled labyrinthine narrative involving a
murder and a slew of possible suspects. JACK
REACHER most definitely does not reinvent the wheel as far as genre
efforts go, but McQuarrie understands how to make its conventional
elements work. The
film begins with a sensationally realized – if not also a bit shocking
and unsettling – opening sequence: A vengeful and cruel sniper with a
military precision goes on a rampant killing spree in the heart of
downtown Pittsburgh, leaving five seemingly unrelated victims dead.
A young and troubled military man, Barr (Joseph Sikora) is accused
as the perpetrator, and the evidence against him is damning: the police
detective (David Oyelowo) raids his house and finds equipment used for
making bullets as well as the sniper rifle.
When the District Attorney (Richard Jenkins) and Barr’s defense
attorney - and daughter of the DA - Helen Rodin (Rosamund Pike) interrogate the accused, all he asks for is Jack
Reacher (Cruise), an ex-Army MP officer turned
off-the-grid drifter dispensing his own unique
brand of white-knuckled justice. Before
Carr can seriously be questioned, though, he’s viscously attacked by
fellow inmates on a routine transfer and is left in a coma.
This leaves Reacher and Helen picking up the pieces of the case and trying to
find the best possible defense for the apparently very guilty client.
Initially, Reacher seems to have little sympathy for Barr and
believes him to be guilty as charged, but as he uses his keen deductive
intellect and Sherlock Holmes-like powers of observation, he begins to
notice patterns of illogic and nagging inconsistencies that occurred during the tragic
day of the shootings. Endlessly
determined and ruthlessly aggressive, Reacher’s investigation leads him to
an enforcer named Charlie (Jai Courtney) and a reprehensible crime boss
known as “The Zec” (played with reptilian creepiness by
the great film director, Werner Herzog, in perhaps the casting coup of the
Christmas film season). Yeah,
yeah…Cruise is a tiny actor to play a blunt force instrument of hulking
physical proportions that is the literary Reacher, but the actor more than
physically compensates here with his thespian talents to make Reacher an
intriguingly well rounded persona that’s credible not only as a tough
brute, but also as a man with razor sharp wits, cunning detective skills,
and forceful drive to right past and current wrongs. Cruise
makes his version of Reacher quite believable as a man that can handle himself
in a brawl with five other assailants, but he more engagingly evokes a
persona of great mental dexterity and confidence that can often out fox everyone
around him. I’m not
altogether sure how a different actor with an enormous and intimidating
visage would have been able to pull off both facets of this character, but
Cruise does so rather admirably. The
performances built around Cruise are also solid.
The radiant Pike holds her own matching wits with Cruise’s
Reacher and the screenplay is flirtatious for how it both plays
up to and ultimate skirts any potential romantic liaison between the pair.
Jenkins’ screen time is limited, but much like he did in the
recent KILLING
THEM SOFTLY he's able to inhabit just about any character he
plays with a nonchalant and low-key exactitude.
A spirited and game Robert Duvall
shows up late in the film in an enjoyably gnarly cameo as a grizzled
gun shop and shooting range owner that comes to assist Reacher and
Helen. And then there is Herzog, who is more than capable of
bringing a macabre level of sinister edge to an otherwise underwritten
character that the film could have benefited more from.
He’s perhaps the only performer to make the line “I chewed off
my fingers before the frostbite could turn to gangrene” come off as
legitimately spooky and not unintentionally uproarious.
It’s an absolute trip seeing the publicly peculiar Herzog play an
equally nutty villain. The
main attraction, though, just may be McQuarrie’s solid direction and
snappy writing, the latter that contains banter with a bluntness and colorful
flavor that these types of pulp-inspired films require.
His direction is noteworthy for how it absconds away from the
typical modern day action flourishes of mind-numbing shaky-cam histrionics
and seizure inducing editorial overkill.
Instead, he brings bravura – and a most refreshing – level of
cleanliness and clarity to individual moments of rock ‘em, sock ‘em
mayhem. Just consider the
film’s show stopping set piece, mid-way through, involving Reacher in a
commandeered car leading the villains – and some of Pittsburgh’s
finest – though an exhilarating chase through the darkened streets of
the Steel City. Along with
the always watchful and keen eye of cinematographer Caleb Deschanel (who
frames Pittsburgh through his lens with a beautifully gritty level of
impending menace), McQuarrie is able to drum up more tangible suspense and
nail-biting intrigue with his less-is-more level of visual coherence. JACK
REACHER has a few flaws, like the fact that it takes a while during the
first half of its already robust 131 minutes to get to the real epicenter of its central murder investigation, which leaves it feeling a
bit top heavy when it comes to exposition. Plus, the film’s release – which I guess shouldn’t be
held directly against it – is horrifically timed with the recent tragic
events of the Aurora school shootings (the opening shots of the sniper
peering down his scope at a child in one instance may perhaps hit a bit too
close to home for some viewers).
Yet, JACK REACHER is a smart, lovingly shot, craftily written, and
thanklessly performed action-thriller that respects the essence of
Child’s novels and his main character.
And for Cruise himself - as self-possessed and emotionally brawny
as ever – he evokes in Reacher a larger-than-life avenging angel despite
his obvious lack of physical similarities to the character.
Great actors make you forget such nonsense. |
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