Knight and Day

I’ve been in love with the Tom Cruise in movies since I fell in love with Top Gun years ago, and it broke my heart while I was in college and in star began to tarnish. Thankfully for me, his star has been glowing a little more in the past few years, first Les Grossman and Valkyrie and now it can continue with Knight and Day. Knight and Day is the kind of Tom Cruise movie that I adore watching, and for the life of me I cannot figure out why this movie is not burning up the box offices. Knight and Day is a spy romantic comedy for lack of a better description of the genre, and it works on every level.

June Havens accidently gets caught up in the path of government agent Roy Miller, who is trying to protect young genius Simon from a rogue agent – a rogue agent who has pegged Miller as the bad seed and has the agency tracking him, and now June, down. While June is the resistant passenger on Roy’s journey she begins to fall for Roy even though she’s never sure if his tale of conspiracy is a lie or the truth.

The reason this film works so well is because of James Mangold. This director has put to huge stars together with Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise and yet neither outshines the other, and their chemistry is fun to watch whether they are sparring verbally with one another or being attacked.

I’ve complained a great deal about directors that can’t handle tonal shifts in their films, and Mangold deserves praise because the tonal shifts in Knight and Day are imperceptible. As a viewer you go from laughing to anticipating onscreen gunfire without ever noticing that the mood suddenly changed in the film, simply because the writer, actors and Mangold did their job well – so well it looks easy and forgettable.

This movie is built around the chemistry between Cruise & Diaz. As a director I don’t know if I would have put the two onscreen together simply because I would have been afraid one star would eclipse the other, but thankfully that doesn’t happen here. Even though the tale is told from June’s perspective Roy is never sidelined or forgotten, and Roy’s character never makes June’s seem less important. This is a marriage of perfect characters and actors and the film is much better for it.

As I stated, Knight and Day is a movie that makes me happy to be a Tom Cruise fan again. This film is a throw-back to adult comedies, action films and stories. It’s a good film that masquerades as a popcorn film and the best part about it is that Knight and Day is fun, and makes you want to spend another two hours at the movies just so you can see it again.

Director: James Mangold
Writer: Patrick O’Neill
Roy Miller: Tom Cruise
June Havens: Cameron Diaz
Fitzgerald: Peter Sarsgaard
Antonio: Jordi Molla
Director George: Viola Davis
Simon Feck: Paul Dano
Rodney: Marc Blucas
April Havens: Maggie Grace

June: The pilots are dead.
Miller: Yeah, they've been shot.
June: By who?
Miller: By me. No, actually, I shot the first pilot then he accidentally shot the second pilot. It's just one of those things.

An Education

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Originally uploaded by Alessandra Ogeda

Jenny is a young woman in post-war England doing what a proper young lady should do: going to school and working hard to get into university. The only problem is it’s her parent’s plan and not hers. So when dashing a dashing older gentleman takes an interest in Jenny she is swept off her feet into a world of fantasy and fun. The only problem is that Jenny’s parents too get caught up in the idea of her older fellow and abandon their plans for Jenny with a new plan – allowing her to drop university and get married.

There is nothing alarmingly original about An Education and yet even without a best picture nomination I would have still walked out of this film with the same feeling – that this is one of the best done movies of 2009. Every single thing about this film was perfectly crafted and enjoyable to watch, even once the inevitable conclusion dropped into the mix.

Perhaps what makes this movie stand out as far as it does is the cast. No matter what any person critical of actors may tell you, having a cast that delivers great performances is absolutely critical to the end result of your film; you can have a fantasticly written, directed and shot film but if your actors and their performances are off then none of the rest matters. In An Education director Lone Sherfig has cast the right actors, gotten them to give moving performances and managed to infuse each character with a unique quality that allows the viewer to feel empathy for each one of them, no matter how despicable, aggravating or sad they may become in the course of the tale.

Carey Mulligan is also a joy to watch as Jenny. The actress is young but she is strong and the intense naivety and vulnerability she is able to infuse into Jenny makes the entire film worth watching. I will look for Mulligan in more roles.

I don’t think that An Education will win the best picture Oscar this year, but I am very glad it was nominated.

Director: Lone Scherfig
Writer: Nick Hornby
Jenny: Carey Mulligan
Miss Stubbs: Olivia Williams
Jack: Alfred Molina
David: Peter Sarsgaard
Danny: Dominic Cooper
Helen: Rosamund Pike

Miss Stubbs: You seem to be old and wise.
Jenny: I feel old. But not very wise.