Jack Reacher

Big surprise, I went to see yet another book to film adaptation. It's a tough job but someone has to see these things. In fact in the past month, apart from the achingly annoying Seven Psychopaths, I've seen mostly adaptations, fun, no? Well this is based on a character called (duh) Jack Reacher, written by Lee Child. A brief google search and you have yourself a mountain of books written about this particular character, another small fact, well not small, a big fact, is that Reacher is a tall domineering skulking intimidating brute, enter Tom Cruise to play him. Immediate reaction? Lol. I don't generally go about using that term, in fact I rarely laugh out loud as a physical action at anything unless it's my usual noise, it's like a half laugh, half exhale of breath, it's not so much a laugh as it is a response to people when I either don't understand what they've said or they I think expect me to laugh... I do it far too often... What was my point?

Oh right so Lee Child, real name Jim Grant, must have thought all of his christmasses had come at once when Tom Cruise took a personal interest in making a film with his character. Only issue, Tom Cruise is playing the lead and he looks absolutely nothing like the book version. Cue angry fans. Let's confirm how little I care about this, but bad casting is always something to note. To be fair Child was more than happy for a Hollywood heavyweight to play his lead character; who wouldn't? Cruise is a proven draw for cinemaphiles and he has released plenty of statements declaring that Cruise is a perfectly adequate Reacher for various reasons, although he still can't literally reach the can on the top shelf at the supermarket. The point is, that if he wanted the movie to be a success he'd need a recognisable action man to play Reacher, and with Cruise taking a personal vested interest in the project he didn't have a choice, unless Liam Neeson had started a bidding war with him. Basically, it's a classic Hollywood case of making do and hoping the book fans don't feel alienated enough to ignore it.

What is quite surprising about this film is that I went in with very low expectations, the trailers have essentially made out that it's yet another flick about a man on a vendetta against someone and is avoiding the police whilst causing some mayhem and excitement. Standard action hero popcorn fluff, it would seem. The trailer has him avoiding the police by walking out of his car and standing at a bus stop incognito whilst the police look on baffled, then there is a standard movie phone call where a woman is in apparent danger with the villain and taunting the hero who then in turn threatens him in a very unheroic yet still impressive manner and slams the payphone down*. What impressed me about the film is that it wasn't like these clips at all, it was very much a detective film, and what impressed me more was that the female lead (played by the dazzlingly beautiful Rosamund Pike) was actually more than just a damsel in distress. Perhaps my brain has been turned to mush lately but it's always satisfying to see a smart and interesting female lead drive the story as much as the hulking male hero in a film, especially these action man films that keep getting churned out, most importantly she is using her brain and although she spends most of the film in an undeniably obvious push up bra (my god those babies were on show!) She was still less a piece of eye candy and more integral to the plot as a whole, although the cleavage shots definitely satisfied the teenage boys on either side of me.

Oh yeah, once again I went to the cinema alone and got a seat in the back row, forgot the children were still off school and bought my tickets really early without really thinking. Anyways turned up midway through the previews and found that I was sitting between two long lines of pre-teen boys, the one on my left had a skin head and a gold chain and the worst manners ever, the one on my right was a little nerd with helmet hair who anxiously shifted away from me when I flounced down between them. Skinhead on my left felt the need to incessantly chatter through the first ten minutes of the film so I turned my head and glared at him until he gave me a cautious sideways glance and clammed up. Every time he began to talk after that I turned my head again to great effect. Man it feels good to be 22 and being able to put a little boy in his place with a mere withering gaze. Jack Reacher has got nothing on me.

What was I saying? So, having once again not read the books or had any interest in anything written by Lee Child even though his books are all over the place, I thought the film was good, for a film. Mystery/thriller novels don't really interest me, there is normally an interesting grisly murder then there's a lot of standing around investigating, possibly further violence but not much, I prefer to just watch the film, it goes by quicker and you're finished sooner. Man I sound like a real book hater, I love books! Just not murder mysteries, sorry Sherlock! I did not expect Jack Reacher to be quite as studied or measured as it was, it took it's time working through the plot even though it revealed the twist at the beginning, although if you have a short attention span I suppose it's quite interesting to realise that the guy is being set up, anyone with half a brain would notice the man committing murder is not the same as the one they had in prison. I had a big 'Ooooh, it's not the same guy!' Exclamation from the boy on my left, that was greeted with an angry glowering. It was fun seeing Richard Jenkins have a hand in things, he has been all over the shop lately! He had a very fun turn in Cabin in the Woods - yeah I saw it, I tried to write a review, it went horribly so I just figured it would be pretty obvious saying I loved it. Wait did I spoil something back there? That is so unlike me!**

So the plot is essentially five people are randomly shot from a car park and the murderer caught by the police has only one request before going down for life, GET JACK REACHER. Jack Reacher knows the gun man has, in the past sniper murder experience, and yet he is asked by the defence - Rosamund Pike, to try and help her get enough evidence to at least prevent her client from facing the death penalty. Combined with her desire to ascertain no more blood is spilt she is the District Attorney's daughter, Richard Jenkins, and he does not want her getting involved in this, a little bit more complex than the standard womanly role. Plus Rosamund Pike actually pulls off moderately intelligent professional woman unlike a lot of beautiful actresses around. Reacher agrees to help and the further he digs the more abundantly clear it becomes that the man was set up and random killing spree had more to it. Of course I won't ruin it by explaining further.

The film goes through great pains of setting up a somewhat realistic occurrence, a sequence of events that leads to Reacher further finding himself embroiled in the case. This is where the majority of the cinema began to shift uneasily, Reacher works as a detective more than a random killing machine, he reacts to violence with relative ease but he doesn't invite it, nor does he go looking for it. He still causes some bullish damage but the action sequences are few and far between, this is not the standard hollywood action film, it's a bit more reserved, a bit more interested in providing a compelling story. The action is kept to a somewhat realistic minimum, Reacher doesn't invite it and he doesn't prolong it. The story has a typical, once you scratch the surface it all gets very complicated feel to it, there is the odd looking villain with the missing fingers and glass eye, he's suitably disturbing and also quite Hollywood in the sense that he is menacing to a fault but doesn't really do much aside from react to the ongoing mistakes around him. Human errors lead to Reacher getting to the bottom of the case and Reacher's own morality or humanity leads to him disappearing once again at the end. So it's all nice and tied up neatly for a possibly sequel or as a stand alone experience.

So the lead character is essentially a ghost, he appears at the beginning and fades away at the end, (not literally, he's not a spooky ghost or anything...) so he doesn't need much substance, Tom Cruise brings a barely simmering rage under the eyes but beyond that he is essentially playing cold hearted badass. It works well then that he has Rosamund Pike striving to try and bring some grounded realism to her role, even if her boobies are under her chin. She's more than the retiring waif, she is capable intelligent empathetic and even though it's by no means the best female performance I've seen it's more than adequate to ground the film; as I've previously mentioned she is actually convincing at what she is doing unlike some.***

I think from all this you can basically tell that Jack Reacher isn't your standard action film that it's been marketed as, it's actually a detective/thriller with a hint of intrigue and broad strokes at depth with a smattering of badassery but not much. It doesn't really make you think once you leave the cinema but it's a relatively satisfying bit of popcorn fodder. Not really fun or stupid or memorable, not something I'd sit to watch again, but for what it was, it was good. It wasn't bad! It set out to tell a story and it did, there was an understandable (mostly) plot and it was moderately interesting. Rosamund Pike, well I could look at her all day long, some folks could do that with Tom Cruise, he even gets his top off for one scene. It's more than I expected, I found myself strangely compelled into not loathing it as I had expected so... A pleasant surprise shall we say? Yeah, let's go with that.

*Had some serious Scott Pilgrim flashbacks on that one where Chris Evans is imitating action hero movies by doing something very similar.
**Well on this blog, in real life I have a habit of telling people who die in TV programmes they haven't finished watching yet. Sorry Mike and Andy, Downton and Dexter got rubbish anyways!
***See Katie Holmes in Batman Begins, gosh that was embarrassing... Sorry former Mrs Cruise...