Knight and Day (2010)
Directed by James Mangold
A fugitive couple goes on a glamorous and sometimes deadly adventure where nothing and no one – even themselves – are what they seem. Amid shifting alliances and unexpected betrayals, they race across the globe, with their survival ultimately hinging on the battle of truth vs. trust.
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28 films that influenced Knight and Day
What critics say influenced Knight and Day
(The old Cary Grant charmer “Charade” did this perfectly.)
While watching the new Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz spy thriller “ Knight and Day ,” I kept flashing back to Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in Alfred Hitchcock ’s “ North by Northwest ” and Grant and Audrey Hepburn in Stanley Donen ’s “Charade,” the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made.
But since Knight and Day really wants to be Charade (1963), it kept reminding me that as much as Cruise and Diaz aren’t Kutcher and Heigl, neither are they Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn—by a very long shot indeed.
"Knight and Day" aspires to the light charm of a romantic action comedy like “Charade” or “ Romancing the Stone ,” but would come closer if it dialed down the relentless action.
He says he wanted to pattern this on two Cary Grant caper films, Stanley Donen�s, Charade (1963) and Alfred Hitchock�s North by Northwest (1959).
The reason director/co-writer James Mangold's ("3:10 to Yuma" and "Walk the Line") carefree homage to globe-trotting capers like Audrey Hepburn's "Charade" works so effectively has more to do with teamwork than plot.
Working with screenwriter Patrick O'Neill, Mangold also sneaks in a party-clever visual reference to Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes involving misted breath on a train window, and a verbal shout-out to France's legendary Hotel du Cap, where the director once held a press conference for his 1997 film Cop Land during the Cannes Film Festival.
Mangold and co-writer Patrick O'Neill reference romantic-comedy twisters such as Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, Stanley Donen's Charade and Doug Liman's Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Directed by James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma, Walk the Line) from a screenplay by Patrick O'Neill, Knight and Day makes a laboured attempt at Hitchcockian wit and glamour in the mode of To Catch a Thief or North by Northwest.
A genial romantic thriller that very much wants to be in the mold of such Alfred Hitchcock entertainments as "North by Northwest" and "To Catch a Thief," or even Stanley Donen 's "Charade," "Knight and Day" is inevitably light on plausibility but, with Cameron Diaz , Peter Sarsgaard , Viola Davis and Paul Dano joining Cruise, it is strong in the acting department.
What is perhaps most dispiriting about Knight and Day is what it suggests about Hollywood and the comedy-thriller-romance subgenre, a hybrid once responsible for such ineffable delights as Charade and To Catch a Thief.
It’s like the scene in “North by Northwest” when Hitchcock had revving planes drown out a boring expository speech — because he knew the speech was necessary, but unsatisfactory.
While watching the new Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz spy thriller “ Knight and Day ,” I kept flashing back to Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in Alfred Hitchcock ’s “ North by Northwest ” and Grant and Audrey Hepburn in Stanley Donen ’s “Charade,” the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made.
He says he wanted to pattern this on two Cary Grant caper films, Stanley Donen�s, Charade (1963) and Alfred Hitchock�s North by Northwest (1959).
Directed by James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma, Walk the Line) from a screenplay by Patrick O'Neill, Knight and Day makes a laboured attempt at Hitchcockian wit and glamour in the mode of To Catch a Thief or North by Northwest.
Though the advance publicity would have you believe Knight and Day is a modern spin on Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (puh-leeze!), the best template for these types of films is Robert Zemeckis’ Romancing the Stone .
I don't begrudge director James Mangold's attempt to re-create the crop-dusting sequence from North by Northwest.
Diaz comes off like a real woman – a little more in the Sarah Connor vein (circa The Terminator ).
Oddly enough, Knight and Day shares a lot in common with those movies, especially True Lies and Romancing the Stone.
The film feels like True Lies, or Mission Impossible, or perhaps a really odd sequel to Vanilla Sky.
I also think the picture could have played up June's comic incredulity at her predicament, a la Alan Arkin in The In-Laws.
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Let me hasten to note that director James Mangold 's latest has none of that magical lightness of touch that shaped classic screwball comedy so deftly and elegantly you'd follow attractive lovers on the run (say, Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in " It Happened One Night ") to the ends of the earth, a smile on your face every inch of the way.
Though the advance publicity would have you believe Knight and Day is a modern spin on Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (puh-leeze!), the best template for these types of films is Robert Zemeckis’ Romancing the Stone .
Cruise has played unbalanced characters before – in Magnolia, Collateral and Tropic Thunder – but the ambiguity here about whether he’s in or out of control is carried on long past all sense, as the body count rises to alarming heights.
Here, he looks perky-eyed and lavishly moisturized, more boyish at 47 than he was a decade ago when he played Frank Mackey, the brilliantly toxic misogynist of Magnolia.
Tom Cruise was very funny in the 1999 movie “Magnolia.”
(Cruise's most memorable characters have tended to be liars: Jerry Maguire , the kid in Risky Business , the unstable self-help guru in Magnolia .)
Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz are both versatile, likeable actors, proven to be capable of mainstream as well as indie (Magnolia and Being John Malkovich, for example).
Having your ego front and center is not a new thing for a movie star (as opposed to Magnolia, where Cruise is actually an actor); since the entire point of their existence is to repeatedly play characters with only the slightest variations on their public persona.
In fact, director James Mangold (“3:10 To Yuma,” “Walk the Line”) makes it clear that those questions aren’t important.
Mangold, who directed 3:10 to Yuma (2007) and Walk the Line (2005), knows that Knight and Day has none of their realism.
Logistics don't worry Mangold (Walk the Line, Kate & Leopold) â fade-to-black is his winking way of addressing the plot holes â and clearly he expects his wink to be met by our smile.
The director is James Mangold , whose previous two films were " Walk the Line " and " 3:10 to Yuma ."
Tom Cruise is top-billed, but this spy spoof's point of view belongs to Cameron Diaz: The latest from director James Mangold (whose "Walk the Line" was as much about June Carter as Johnny Cash) is not really a male-oriented action thriller but a romantic fantasy for a plugged-in generation of green screen-savvy girls sympathetic to the idea of courtship as a hyperadrenalized series of deliriums and fugue states, with Cruise -- the "Cocktail" star now a self-caricature of cockiness -- the dubious modern knight who rides to the rescue on a motorcycle steed.
James Mangold ( Walk the Line ) directs this cinematic blend of action drama, romantic comedy, and globe-hopping espionage tale.
Admittedly, had award-winning director James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma, Walk the Line ) been able to build this film without top class actors headlining, Knight and Day might have been a bit more ambitious, and likely a bit more deadly and daring.
The director, James Mangold, has previously dealt with crazy characters ( "Girl, Interrupted" ), romantic comedy ( "Kate & Leopold" ), and action ( "3:10 to Yuma" ), so "Knight and Day" seems to come fairly naturally.
In fact, director James Mangold (“3:10 To Yuma,” “Walk the Line”) makes it clear that those questions aren’t important.
Mangold, who directed 3:10 to Yuma (2007) and Walk the Line (2005), knows that Knight and Day has none of their realism.
Tom Cruise returns to form in this entertaining action-comedy from director James Mangold ("3:10 to Yuma").
The director is James Mangold , whose previous two films were " Walk the Line " and " 3:10 to Yuma ."
Working with screenwriter Patrick O'Neill, Mangold also sneaks in a party-clever visual reference to Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes involving misted breath on a train window, and a verbal shout-out to France's legendary Hotel du Cap, where the director once held a press conference for his 1997 film Cop Land during the Cannes Film Festival.
The director, James Mangold, has previously dealt with crazy characters ( "Girl, Interrupted" ), romantic comedy ( "Kate & Leopold" ), and action ( "3:10 to Yuma" ), so "Knight and Day" seems to come fairly naturally.
Logistics don't worry Mangold (Walk the Line, Kate & Leopold) â fade-to-black is his winking way of addressing the plot holes â and clearly he expects his wink to be met by our smile.
But when director James Mangold (whose credits range from Walk the Line to Kate & Leopold) tries to stage huge action set pieces or pay attention to the nonsensical plot, things grind completely to a halt.
Working from a screenplay by bit actor-turned-writer Patrick O’Neill, director James Mangold, who was an indie darling in the mid-1990s before crafting a sharp Hollywood trajectory with the tense thriller Identity (2003), the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line (2005), and the smart Western remake 3:10 to Yuma (2007), keeps the film light and loose and allows Cruise and co-star Cameron Diaz to do most of the heavy lifting, although he also gives us a few surprising twists on old material, such as when he stages a lengthy rescue from the in-and-out drugged perspective of Diaz’s character, which turns what would have been rote material into a sequence that is both funny and narratively economical.
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I get what they were trying to convey – the “fish out of water” that ends up being funny through her reactions to what is happening around her. Unfortunately she was just annoying instead – picture Kate Capshaw’s supremely annoying character from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Indy 2) and you’ll be on the right track.
Instead it revels in being a fluffy throwback to the early 007 days (the Connery and Moore years) but without the gadgets, or even the action-adventures of the '80s that thrived on the debonair-hero-and-hapless-heroine -along-for-the-ride formula of Raiders Of The Lost Ark or Romancing The Stone.
This is vintage Cruise, with the smile and the devilish twinkle in his eye recalling Risky Business and Top Gun.
(Where has this fellow been since Risky Business?)
He has been doing it successfully since he helped make subway travel so sexy in his breakout hit Risky Business (1983).
It’s been close to 30 years since Tom Cruise first donned the Wayfarers in Risky Business, but here he is again in Knight And Day, and nothing’s changed—not the sunglasses, not the shit-eating grin, not the air of supreme self-confidence that carries him from the first frame to the last.