The hard part about reviewing movies is that it gets a little difficult to reveal certain parts about the movie without spoiling it. I don’t mind spoiling movies I wouldn’t want anyone else to see, but for some movies, I’ll have to talk about some things in such generic terms that it might get a little bland. And since Knight and Day is a movie I think everyone should see, and one of its plot points is that we’re not really sure whose side Tom Cruise is on, I’ll try to avoid the major spoilers.
The plot mainly revolves around a Macguffin (I’d like to thank Roger Ebert for introducing me to that word. It’s so useful in movies) that everyone wants. There’s also the guy that invents the macguffin, who’s barely out of high school. Evan and I had a discussion about whether he’s eccentric (Evan’s side) or if he’s autistic (my side). Let me put it this way: If you’re 20 years old and invent a device that defies the current laws of physics, you’re either a huge nerd (with appropriate comic book collection) or autistic. And since there weren’t really any nerdiness signs, and a few autistic ones, I settled on autistic. Keep in mind, though, that this is Hollywood Autism. Actual autism can range from normal enough to Rain Man to farther down the scale, but the only ones in movies and TV shows are the ones that look good on camera.
The movie bucks the trend of two hours of buildup (which they could have done by filling it with romantic comedy, and I’m sure glad they didn’t) and a climax. Instead, they have action set throughout. It slows down a few times, most notably right before the climax, but that’s probably both to make the climax seem more exciting, and also to tell the audience to ‘Pay Attention: Climax Incoming.’ And BAM!*
There’s a bit of romance in it (although judging by the amount of young adolescent females in the audience, they were either expecting a lot more, or seriously confused about the opening date of Eclipse). Most of it’s used for comedy, so that was acceptable. Both Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz have the comedic chops to pull it off. Cruise can also do action, so everything in the movie’s covered.
One particular action sequence near the beginning of the movie springs to mind. There’s a fairly inventive shot of the outside of the plane (while it’s in the air), with Cruise and a minor henchman fighting down an aisle. We can see the action clearly because the windows are close enough together that the combat isn’t really obscured. It stood out for me because it’s also used in lesser movies (Gabriel comes to mind … terrible movie, by the way. So bad I’m not even going to provide an IMDB link) that space out the windows (some movies also use corridors) and use judicious editing to cover up their actors not being able to fight worth a darn. In bad movies, it looks awful. Here, they’re proving their actors are competent at combat, which is something I always applaud.
The movie tends to use a lot of callbacks, or Chekhov’s Guns. Basically, a piece of information will seem unimportant at first, but used later. It’s almost predictable. For instance,
The movie also makes great use of off-screen action. At one point, June is drugged while they’re both captured. We get shots from her point of view as she drifts in and out of consciousness. The shots (which only last a second or two) are all of
So all in all, definitely two thumbs up. The only thing I didn’t get was the title. By the end of the movie, Knight has two meanings. Does day have a meaning that I missed, or is it only for wordplay? If someone else sees this movie (seriously, everyone should go see it) and figures it out, please share it with me, because I’m day-ing to know (snigger).
*There it is!
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