A
film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net on Dec. 22, 2012.
Jack Reacher has the distinction
of being little more than it initially appears to be: a clumsily condensed
mystery/thriller novel made into a movie that offers little more than every
other clumsily condensed mystery/thriller novel made into a movie. Overlong and
undercooked, the film fails to gain traction on any level. It's dramatically
inert and relies on uninspired action sequences to provide pop. Christopher McQuarrie,
who wrote The Usual Suspects and Valkyrie, adapts Lee Child's One Shot into
an uneven screenplay that is talky and exposition-heavy in the first half
before offering a modicum of satisfaction toward the end. Yes, even in a
pedestrian movie it can be fun to see the bad guys get their comeuppance.
Watching
Jack Reacher, I was reminded of Alex Cross, which suffered from many of
the same problems. Things that work in books often don't translate well into
movies, especially given the time constraints. At 130 minutes, Jack Reacher is too long but it feels
rushed and incomplete. It's obvious that subplots were truncated or cut and
character arcs were abridged. Werner
Herzog's villain, The Zec, is a
fascinating piece of work but he has minimal screen time.
By
releasing Jack Reacher in December,
Paramount Pictures wants to draw a connection to Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, the box office success
released at this time a year ago. December is actually a good time to release
an action thriller since it makes a change from all of the serious would-be
Oscar contenders clogging up multiplex screens. What made Mission: Impossible successful was its audacity and spectacle.
Neither of these elements is much in evident in Jack Reacher, despite misleading trailers that attempt to portray
this as more of a kick-ass experience than it is.
Tom Cruise, in a role that's
not a great fit, is the title character, an ex-military investigator who has
returned to the United States as a ghost
who leaves no electronic trail. When a sniper takes out five innocent people,
Jack's history with the man gets him pulled into the investigation; he soon
becomes the lead investigator for the defense attorney, Helen Rodin (Rosamund Pike). Despite an inner desire
to see the man die from lethal injection, Jack begins to uncover a
disconcerting series of clues that lead him to conclude that Helen's client is
innocent. The killer is not only still at large but willing to strike again to
cover his tracks.
Cruise
isn't the only one who's miscast although, considering that he's the producer,
his participation is understandable. Rosamund Pike is unconvincing as the
smart, idealistic Helen. She does a lot of eyelash-batting and smiling that are
antithetical to what one expects from the female sidekick in a movie like this. Richard
Jenkins (as Helen's father, the D.A.) and David Oyelowo (as the lead police investigator) are solid actors in
search of a paycheck. The only one who really seems invested in his role is
respected German director Werner Herzog in one of his occasional forays in
front of the cameras. His portrayal of The
Zec is genuinely creepy. Robert
Duvall shows up late in the proceedings for reasons only he can explain.
Tonal
inconsistencies abound. There are times when Jack Reacher appears headed into romantic territory only to pull
back and decide to make Helen and Jack's relationship professional. There's
also a bizarre bathroom fight scene that verges on slapstick. The bad guys in
this sequence are such utter buffoons that the scene creates a disconnect in a
movie that is otherwise pretty grim. Jack
Reacher's timing is also unfortunate with respect to some of the content:
the movie opens with an image of a sniper putting a six-year old girl in the crosshairs
of his scope. And, while the child isn't slain, five other people are -
all-in-all, not a great way to create an environment of escapism given current events. (In McQuarrie's defense, primary
shooting on Jack Reacher was complete
long before even the Aurora, Colorado incident.)
Jack Reacher's centerpiece action
sequences, which include a lengthy car chase and a shootout/fight, are shot in
a clear, coherent manner but lack the content to make them noteworthy. They are
generic staples and, because no sense of excitement or suspense accompanies
them, they feel overlong and at times almost tedious. Jack Reacher is B-level material that has been given an A-level
treatment. Despite all the talent involved both in front of and behind the
camera, this would-be franchise launcher never achieves anything better than a
decaying low orbit. I wouldn't bet the mortgage on there being a Jack Reacher 2. [Berardinelli’s rating:
** out of 4 stars. And, it turns out there will be a Jack Reacher: Never Go Back in 2016, starring Tom Cruise and Cobie
Smulders.]
Labels:
action, crime, mystery, thriller
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