Review of Knight and Day (2010) by Shiira — 18 Aug 2010

Did he train you? Did he rehearse you? Did he tell you what to do and what to say? These questions, of course, are part of the famous speech that Jimmy Stewart delivers to Kim Novak in Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo", just before Scottie Ferguson loses Judy for a second time, this time for real, when Madeleine's ghost plunges from the mission tower to her death, the end result of Stewart's character's inability to deal with the intrigue between his obsession and Gavin Elster(Tom Helmore).

She fell from a high place, and she fell hard, just like Tom Cruise, a man who knows a thing or two about vertigo. Cruise, fresh off his bravura comic performance in Ben Stiller's "Tropic Thunder", where the former mega-star didn't quite look like himself as a Hollywood producer, looks exactly like the actor we remember from the last century who danced in his underwear, as "Day and Knight" outfits the "Risky Business" star with the right hair, the right clothes.

and most importantly, the right elan to ingratiate our Tom with the moviegoing public who finally grew tired of his public persona. From the first moment we see Cruise surveying the airport for a mule, it's as if he emerged from a puff of green smoke; it's as if he never jumped on Oprah's couch; it's as if he never lamblasted the mental health profession.

But alas, moviegoers have long memories. Scottie's questions are our questions, as we receive each new Cruise performance; pointed questions in reference to his guru, the science fiction writer who founded The Church of Scientology.

Playing a rogue FBI agent named Roy Miller, Cruise, who alienated so many people(starting with Brooke Shields) because of his disdain for anti-depressants, in "Knight and Day", on a subtextual level, loses the ideological war with the psychiatric profession, as its Roy's job to keep the Zephyr(a self-perpetuating battery) stable, a job that he's unable to perform.

The Zephyr becomes unstable; it blows up. Roy has a manic quality about him. Most tellingly, Cruise comes close to performing a Nazi salute when he tells June(Cameron Diaz) about her odds for survival, both with or without his protection.

It reminds the moviegoer that Scientologists believe psychiatry to be a "Nazi science". So how is "Day and Knight" most like "Vertigo? It's the scene where June wakes up in a red bikini on Roy's secret island; he saw her naked, just like Scottie, who changed Madeleine's clothes after she had jumped in the San Francisco Bay.

But then "Day and Knight" goes one step further, as June returns the favor, clothing Roy in shorts during his blackout. He's **** like a Hitchcock blonde, just like Kim Novak. June sees Roy, sees Cruise, at his most naked.

Perhaps she cured Roy/Tom of his vertigo.