So in a similar way to the Hobbit I will a first of all cover off the one piece of controversy that has been trawling the rounds of the Internet prior to the films release - namely that of the casting of Tom Cruise to play the titular character. In summary - it's fine, it does work, so just shut up and enjoy the film.
In more detail, for any fans or even casual readers of the books, the notion that the comparatively diminutive Mr Cruise can play Jack Reacher is a bit of a stretch given the man is portrayed as 6'5" and 220lb+ and yes this is actually a very important part of his character in the book. So at face value you would think this is indeed a travesty of epic proportions, but in reality you have to go a bit deeper and ask why is his size so important in the book? The reason is fairly simple to surmise and that is intimidation. It is important for the stories that the audience perceives the character as a bit of a bad ass, and in addition it is important for the reader to accept that the other characters in the book are readily intimidated by him. Now in the film this is still all very important, although with the role of the reader replaced by that of a viewer, which is very slightly different, and in this case it is accomplished on a very slightly different way. Sure if they had a cast a nobody actor who was the size of Tom Cruise it would not have been successful, but Cruise brings something of his own to the screen - that of notoriety. The viewer knows who Tom Cruise is and thanks to his action pedigree in films like, The Mission Impossible series, Collateral and even things like Knight and Day (where in a way he parodied this very factor), his role as "bad ass" is already established. He doesn't need intimidating size for the audience to accept him as such, as they already associated the actor with such status. So yes it is fine. Really!
So how about the film itself? Well it was “all right”. Nothing really to write home about, but probably a very slightly above average crime thriller. Probably the first thing to cover off is my use of the term “crime thriller”, as this is in fact very much what this film really is. If you’ve just seen the trailer and the various advertising associated with this film you might be forgiven for thinking this is an out and out dumb action film, but it very much isn’t. Like the book that it is based on, the real crux of the film is the antagonist (Reacher) seeking to explain what has actually happened in the opening scene of the film, and how he works the discrepancies, and the pieces that don’t seem to fit, until the truth can come out. It does have a few bits of action in it (4 bits by my count), largely orchestrated around Reacher, but it is very much a crime thriller first and an action thriller second. Of course the bits of action that were in the film were done well, and the 4 set pieces all fitted really well into it with the car chase scene in particular was really well done. Reacher is hardly Hercule Poirot, and the film is very much along the same lines as something like Dirty Harry, where the investigator is hardly opposed to utilising violence when required. Fundamentally though this is a film that resolves around a mystery, and specifically an inconsistency, that the antagonist picks up on, and forms the central conflict of the film.
Now this is personally where I think the film ends up somewhat weaker than the book, as this version pretty much gives the audience the solution to the mystery right from the beginning. Major spoiler alert time now - in case you haven’t been warned enough! From the opening scene you see that it is not Barr who shoots the rifle, and straight away Jack Reacher is on the scene and the audience knows that it is some kind of elaborate frame job, even though the characters are yet to discover this. The problem with doing it this way, is that the audience is therefore effectively waiting for the main characters to catch up with their own understanding and actually make progress on figuring out exactly how it all fits together. The book on the other hand disguises the true shooter, so the reader only starts to make those leaps at the same time as the antagonist does, and often just slightly behind - something that gives a much better sense of mystery and intrigue with the audience / reader and actually ties them into the progress of the character. In the film there is much less sense of shared accomplishment as the audience already knows and are just waiting for Reacher and co to get to the same conclusion. Now I’m sure that this may well have been more difficult to pull off in the form of a 2 hour film film - but I would have hoped that one of the guys behind the Usual Suspects (a film with possibly the best example of show the audience one thing and then reveal something else ever) would have managed to pull off such a feat, and the film would have been better for it.
On the plus side though (and anyone who has read the book will appreciate this), the film did manage to mostly avoid the one really, really huge plot hole that was contained within the book (it is in fact still there, but it is far less obvious, and much less important in the film). I won’t bore you with the details as I’m not reviewing the book, but suffice to to say it did annoy me somewhat and the film does a much better job at keeping the inconsistencies to a minimum.
So how about the rest of it? Well acting wise Cruise does a decent job - he is at times very much the Jack Reacher of the books(*), and when required he is the Jack Reacher that is required for this film. Rosemnd Pike was (yet again - I don’t think I have yet seen something that has impressed me) somewhat disappointing in the role of Helen, largely playing the dumb counterpoint to Reacher. The two bad guys were for the most part forgettable, but Rubert Duvall certainly rocked up and nailed his role.
The general feel of the film is good, and certain scenes really do a good job at ratcheting up the tension and getting the audience involved. The opening sniper scene in particular is particularly well done, and anyone who has every shot a rifle will appreciate the soundtrack solely consisting of the shooters breath sounds, initially monotonous as he surveys the scene and then that dreaded pause before the first shot is made. Other scenes however do come across as having sacrificed content for style points.
The final result - walking out of the cinema how did I feel? Well I’ll go back and say that I felt that as a film it was “all right”. I couldn't exactly walk in there with high expectations, Lee Child is hardly the most revered author ever, and in some ways I was impressed and in some ways I was disappointed. I felt it missed a trick or two in terms of making the mystery as compelling as it could be, but Cruise was good, the set pieces were good and the general feel of the film was good - so the end result was it was “all right”. Don’t rush out and see it - but if you do I think you will still walk away thinking it was exactly that.
(*) Purely for those who have read the book - there is one scene where I was very much mouthing the words “Reacher said nothing”... “Reacher said nothing”...
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