FILMREVIEW: Knight and Day

Imagine being on a flight where all the other passengers want to kill you. If you’re a parent of a young child, a seat kicker or a snorer, you probably don’t have to imagine. But poor June Havens (Cameron Diaz) is none of these things, yet still finds herself in the midst of a lethal case of air rage as she flies home to Boston from Wichita, where she’s been buying spare parts for a car. If it seems unlikely that somebody would bother to fly around the US picking up spare parts which they could simply have FedExed, set your mood to credulous because this is just an hors d’oeuvre on the menu of silliness that is Knight and Day.

June’s mid-flight turbulence comes courtesy of Roy Miller (Tom Cruise), a charming stranger she meets at the airport. Rather than the average passenger you get stuck next to on a plane, who wants to tell you about their recent operations or complain nonstop about the food and service, Roy impresses June with his pithy banter. Too bad that their airborne flirtation is interrupted when Roy, a secret agent suspected of having gone rogue, has to crash land the plane, bringing June’s Little Miss Ordinary lifestyle to an end.

Henceforth June and Roy must race from one exotic, glamourous location to another, dispatching the acne-scarred, dubious-facial haired Europeans who are trying to kill them, all to get their hands on a special battery that never runs out. (Yes, it’s all over an infinite battery. Perhaps no-one has told them about chargers.) The FBI are in there somewhere too. Cue high-octane car chases (baddies in black SUVs, as usual), noisy shootouts and various allusions to far superior actions films such as North by Northwest and The Lady Vanishes.

The characters are paper thin, and the movie sometimes feels like it was taken from a comic book, which it wasn’t. Don’t make the mistake of thinking too much about the plot, which is equally flimsy and collapses at the merest probing. But plot and characters are secondary in a comic action caper of this kind to the juggernaut of star power. It’s Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz! (And, thankfully, not in Vanilla Sky.) Okay, we’re not talking Bogart and Bacall chemistry, but Tom and Cam are likeable and bankable, and they’re not going to make a hash of an old-school spy flick like this. It’s also nice to see that having committed the cardinal Hollywood sin of passing 35, a woman is still entrusted with a lead action role.

Set piece action sequences – some of which, including a bull run, are rather spectacular – follow hot upon each other’s heels, punctuated by a bit of flirting and some smart lines. It’s all very action-by-numbers, but Knight and Day never takes itself too seriously. For the most part it flows along nicely – probably because any pause would have given viewers the opportunity to consider the plot weaknesses. Cruise has played this sort of spy several times in the Mission: Impossible franchise and both he and Diaz set about their roles with some gusto. It’s all set to a fun, upbeat soundtrack. And credit to Cruise: he is looking great considering he’s pushing 50, the megawatt smile still intact.

Summer blockbusters seem to get more dismal every year, but while Knight and Day is about as cerebral as the average footballer, it’s amiable enough in a big, dumb way. Take your popcorn, leave your critical faculties at home

Debbie Stowe