Cameron Diaz’s June is blind-sided by Tom Cruise’s rogue ex-CIA agent, Roy, in an airport terminal. It seems that Cruise has been framed (or is he?) for a major breach in government security, and the two must steal away together to far-flung parts of America and Europe. Cruise plays Roy with the usual overwrought commitment. Roy is supposed to be funny here, but the issue is that every one of Cruise’s roles these days can’t help but be a reflection of the troublesome Tom Cruise media grotesque. Roy speaks to a man that is overcompensating for some buried secrets. Knight and Day feels like it is trying to cover for something (perhaps as benign as the fact that Cruise is sometimes a poor judge of his own charisma) and is unsettling and weird when it should be fizzy and forgettable.
This article appears in Jul 1-7, 2010.
