Jack Reacher - 3 smiles

Like all fans of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels, I was dismayed when I heard that Tom Cruise was going to play that character in a soon-to-open movie. Cruise is nowhere close to resembling Reacher, who’s 6’5” tall with a 50-inch chest and weighing between 210-250 pounds. However, I also understand Hollywood’s reluctance to make a movie without a name star attached. And because I really like Jack Reacher and want to see more of his stories on the screen, I went to see “Jack Reacher” with an open mind. While Cruise’s physical appearance takes some getting used to, he has the charm, eloquence and physicality to effectively play Jack Reacher. And he has created a protagonist that’s full of personality. He has a sharp sense of humor and a smart, calculating mind that allows him to piece together clues. And casting filmmaker Werner Herzog as the film’s creepy villain is a cool move. Writer-director Christopher McQuarrie (an Oscar winner for his screenplay The Usual Suspects) opens the movie with a sequence that doesn’t contain a single line of dialogue, signaling that this isn’t your typical actioner.

A man gets into a white mini-van and drives to a quiet parking lot in central Pittsburgh. He parks on one of the upper floors and slips a quarter into a parking meter. He looks across the river with his long-range rifle and starts firing. Five random people are killed. The man then jumps into his van and flees the scene. Within 24 hours, the police have made an arrest. The car, gun and a fingerprint on the coin in the parking meter have led authorities to James Barr, an ex-army sniper who has lived a solitary life. With this overwhelming evidence, Alex Rodin (Richard Jenkins), the DA, needs Barr to sign a confession. Instead, Barr writes three words on a piece of paper: ‘Get Jack Reacher,’ The only information Rodin can discover is Reacher used to be an MP and he is not on any wanted lists. Luckily for Rodin, Reacher finds him. And although Reacher believes Barr is guilty, he is persuaded by Barr’s attorney and the DA’s daughter, Helen Rodin (Rosamund Pike) to take a look at the crime scene and the case files. The deeper he digs, the stranger things get. Things fall into place a little too easily in the end, but “Jack Reacher” is certainly worth seeing. I can only hope that this is the first of a franchise. 12/21/12