Knight and Day

2010, US, directed by James Mangold

There's a moment, somewhere in the lengthy midsection of the film, where Cameron Diaz turns to Tom Cruise and implores him to stop shooting people, to stop the noise, the excess, the stupidity of it all. I half wondered if it was director James Mangold's cri de coeur -- he's directed several very solid genre pieces, especially Cop Land and Walk the Line, but he must surely have realized at some point that this jokey action flick was not in his wheelhouse. His apparent solution, to push everyone, including his two game stars, to dial things up to cartoon levels does nothing to salvage the situation. A genuine waste of talent, in front of and behind the camera.