Look, I get that killing is bad no matter how you go about doing it, but Jack Reacher is a plain thug. Only firing a gun if he’s within point blank range, Reacher prefers to beat the pulp out of lesser opponents, finally getting in a few brutal finishing moves to the crotch, by breaking legs or wrists or finally stomping someone’s face in.
He makes for a disturbingly cold action hero, and the movie that shares his name, “Jack Reacher,” feels much the same.
Blending TV crime procedural talking points with hyper violent vigilante excitement, “Jack Reacher” explores the investigation of a man who went on a sharpshooter killing spree, murdering five random and innocent people, only to frame the attack on an Iraq War veteran discharged for a similar attack. Just before he’s beaten and goes into a coma, he asks for Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise), his former military detective, to come and help him.
Based on Lee Child’s series of novels, “Jack Reacher” has a distinctly literary quality for an action film. It’s labored with a heavy backstory and conspiracy nuance, but all of it in arguably the wrong places. We learn an awful lot about the supposed murderer, the female lawyer, investigator and love interest (Rosamund Pike) and her relationship with her father (Richard Jenkins) and the bizarre mastermind without even much of a reason to be in the movie (Werner Herzog being absolutely sinister and iconic while barely lifting an eyebrow), but very little about the mysterious Jack Reacher.
Cruise plays Reacher with an icy stare, never going for a punch line when there always seems to be one there, and instead coming across as grimly smug and self-confident. His character is cocky and sly with a backwards logic that allows him to concoct conspiracy theories out of thin air, and the movie can’t help but watch him work.
There’s quite literally a scene that passes by for near 15 minutes in which he does nothing but talk through the minute details of the case. Twists and meaningless McGuffins galore, “Jack Reacher” requires a patience that this pulpy movie doesn’t fully earn.
What’s more upsetting and disconcerting is that the movie seems to justify mindless vengeance and violence while also proving to be one of the more kinetically exciting mainstream movies of 2012. The opening set piece will remind many of a dull video game experience, but in other moments like an elaborate car chase, Director Christopher McQuarrie mounts the camera on the far side of the driver’s hood, altering the way in which traditional car chases are shot and create impact.
“Jack Reacher” is based on just one of Child’s roughly 10 novels, so hopefully we’ll get a chance to see Cruise take on this character again, but this time in a more challenging, mature and morally sound film.
2 ½ stars
Good review Brian. Even though he’s tiny, Cruise still makes up for his disadvantage by playing Reacher like the type of bad-ass we expect to see from him nowadays.