FILM: Knight And Day - the star system still works

The story: The lives of an ordinary mechanic (Cameron Diaz) and a superspy on the run (Tom Cruise) become entwined on an airplane, and in a series of exotic locations and explosive situations. Is he who he claims to be? And will he ever stop drugging her? 

Tom Cruise is a really good comic actor. Even in the days when the comedy was accidental in Top Gun, you could see the potential – and he’s exploited the unintentional humour audiences see in him, that couch-jumping craziness, built on it, and bent it round into a whole new string. He even has his own comedy movie in the works, built off that ‘fat hands’ cameo in Tropic Thunder, and his turn in Knight And Day is great preparation for it.

Cruise plays a superspy called Roy who remains calm and courteous in the most absurdly dangerous situations; he’s as professional and casually capable of the impossible as you imagine Tom Cruise is on weekends. And his  name is ‘ Roy ’. Roy Rogers was called Roy , as was Roy of the Rovers, but that’s the heroes of a different generation. For Cruise to be called Roy is clearly a joke, a deadpan along the lines of his best dialogue in the movie: when Cameron Diaz says ‘I think I feel like having sex’, he responds by telling her to hydrate.

That these lines work is just as well, as the script isn’t Knight And Day’s strong point - far from it. It’s a series of set pieces performed by extremely good-looking stars, packed with old-style close-ups that trade on how audiences can be entertained simply by looking at them. It is seriously good fun, and what story there is has a solid shape to it.

Everything else is best kept as a surprise, but keep an eye out for a certain scene and tell me if you think Cruise doesn’t have a couple of other, less obvious roles in the film.