Review of American Made (2017) by Alan W — 24 Sep 2017

Tom Cruise latest is a breezy, frivolous retro romp. He plays Barry Seal, a bored TWA pilot recruited by the CIA to run covert operations in central and south America in the late 70s to mid 80s. Operations to take photographs soon escalate to drugs and arms running and all sorts of shenanigans follow.

Slickly directed with the expected flair (the deliberately grainy 80s shooting and visual style is a blast) and kinetic energy (the airborne scenes are particularly exciting to watch) associated with Doug Liman, the tonally playful film condenses a whole series of increasingly unbelievable and outrageous but allegedly true events into its almost 2hrs running time.

It is a lot to squeeze in and why the film feels superficial as it rushes them through with little nuance or characterisation. That's never more so when things inevitably head south in the second half of the film.

It's conceivable that this reflects what happened in reality, but it still feel like introducing stereotyped side characters to do dumb things to create dramatic tensions, and it just feels jarring and too sign-posted.

Cruise, despite the physical non-resemblance, is well-cast and oozes easy charm and personality on-screen in a role that's not a million miles away if you imagine crossing Jerry Maguire with Maverick from Top Gun.

However, as the film arrives at the less than breezy ending that real life dictate, it just doesn't gel with the tone the film has established so far and the result lacks either the satirical punch nor the dramatic weight the story demands.