Knight and Day (***)

Directed by: James Mangold

Starring: Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard, Jordi Mollà, Viola Davis, Paul Dano, Maggie Grace

Seen: July 26th 2010

*** Out of ****

Knight and Day brings the fun back to the preposterous action comedy. Roy Miller (Cruise) seems like a normally charming guy when we first meet him at Wichita Airport, and only one or two mannerisms indicate something else. He is looking around, searching, and when June Havens (Diaz) comes stumbling in, he has found his mark. He bumps into the unsuspecting June and when she turns around his charming nature and her apparent penchant for this type of thing immediately dissolve all possible outburst. A few minutes later June goes through airport security with her suitcase full of engine parts, with Roy not far away. By chance they board the same flight, an eerily empty one.

On the flight, June falls for Roy but while freshening up in the bathroom, Roy is assaulted by everyone on the plane. He successfully “dispatches” them all and when June comes out of the bathroom he barely has time to explain the situation before having to land the plane in a cornfield. June accosts Roy, who gives her a little something to calm the nerves, which knocks her out, and she wakes up back in her bed at home. At her dress-fitting for her sister’s wedding, June is approached by the FBI, who claim Roy is one of their agents gone rogue, and as they drive off with her their motorcade is attacked and Roy “rescues” June. This all transpires in more or less the first 10 minutes of Knight and Day.

What follows is an often ridiculous, but highly entertaining action comedy with a slight tinge of romance as June cannot decide whether to be scared of Roy or to fall in love with him. They are looking to find Simon Feck (Dano), an adolescent genius who has created a very valuable item, before the FBI’s Fitzgerald (Sarsgaard) does. They follow the clues but are never far ahead of (or behind) Fitzgerald’s henchmen in a chase that at some times feels very over the top, but only until you remember the stakes with Simon’s invention. June and Roy share great chemistry while the chase is on, and before you know it, you are so involved in the adrenaline-fuelled action that you are more than willing to suspend disbelief as some of the more ridiculous sequences play off on screen.

Cruize and Diaz really set the screen alight as the buddy comedy pair and Paul Dano adds the perfect exact opposite of Roy Miller as the “endangered specie” in this movie. The action sequences are fast and fun, with rarely a moment to forget one before the next one barges in, be it running to survive a bombing attack on a small island; or being chased on a motorcycle by multiple cars while the running of the bulls interrupts the chase in the streets of Spain; the movie never loses its energy. Knight and Day is a highly entertaining recall of the action movies of old, over the top but always engaging, and director James Mangold just keeps impressing me with his impressive run of movies (Girl, Interrupted; Identity; Walk the Line; 3:10 to Yuma). Knight and Day is immense fun, a big screen must see filled chock full with excitement and good humour, light entertainment as it should be.