Jack Reacher (2012)

Somewhere in the aftermath of the infamous couchjump heard round the world, Tom Cruise became a bankable performer with a penchant for entertaining action flicks.  Jack Reacher is the latest in a set of diverting pictures, even if it’s not the most inventive movie you’ll see this month.

Cruise is the titular protagonist, an army cop turned drifter who lives off the grid in order to cherish fully the freedom for which he and his comrades have fought.  After an army sniper is arrested for the killing of five civilians, Reacher comes to Pittsburgh to close an old case and accepts the offer of attorney Helen Rodin (Rosamund Pike) to investigate further before running afoul of a criminal enterprise run by the weary survivalist “The Zec” (Werner Herzog).

Christopher McQuarrie pulls double duty as screenwriter (adapting from the Lee Child novels) and director, and it’s apparent that he’s the same man who brought us the script for The Usual Suspects.  Jack Reacher is similarly structured, with small moments (like bullets falling on the floormat of a car) repeated and explained later.  But unlike Suspects, Jack Reacher doesn’t rely on a last-minute game-changing gimmick, opting instead for a more straightforward approach that lets us discover the clues just a few seconds after Reacher does.  The dialogue is snappy, with Reacher rattling off one-liners like an American James Bond.

The plot turns on Reacher’s observations, including a few deductions that might impress even old Sherlock.  And Cruise does a good job as the passive action hero, without much of a personality but with enough natural charisma to carry off the script’s cleverer lines.  Cruise manages to make Reacher an engaging figure without sacrificing the enigma that otherwise makes his character a cipher.

Herzog is a particularly great choice for a villain, with his hoarse whispers conveying menace and malice tempered by his overwhelming ennui.  When The Zec retells his backstory, Herzog’s droll delivery imbues the dialogue with subtle terror that most other character actors would have overplayed or at best managed unsuccessfully.  Pike, though, is unfortunately interchangeable with most other actresses, serving as a generic sounding-board against which Reacher can be exceptionally bright.  Her chemistry with Richard Jenkins, who plays her father, is a success, but she doesn’t do much in the film until she’s cast in the damsel-in-distress role – a shame, since Pike seems to be just shy of the A-list.

In the third act, though, a near-cameo from Robert Duvall proves always welcome.  Playing a grizzly ex-Marine, Duvall is a good combination of “familiar face” with “begrudging sidekick,” turning an action movie trope into a reunion with an old favorite.

Jack Reacher isn’t fantastically inventive, its rejection of flashy stunts and show-off writing meaning it probably won’t be overly memorable in a few months.  This is no Mission Impossible, for example, where the only person smarter than the main character is the screenwriter, who can’t help but show off cleverness.  What saves the film from obscurity, though, is the smart script paired with Cruise’s performance as the hero. 

Jack Reacher is clearly the start of a prospective franchise, to which I say – more of this clever writing done without bombast is welcome.  Jack Reacher is, like Taken, a film that chooses to do well rather than to do flamboyant; if you want flash, stay home, but if you want a no-frills cerebral action film, reach for Reacher.

Jack Reacher is rated PG-13 “for violence, language and some drug material.”  There are several fight scenes and shootings; most are bloodless but still moderately intense.  There’s an F-bomb or two, a few scenes set in a bar, and a mention of cocaine.