Jack Reacher

There have been complaints, I’ve heard, about Tom Cruise’s height and its impact on the long-awaited on-screen debut of Jack Reacher, author Lee Child’s supposedly skyscraping ex-military anti-hero. While the couch-jumping Mr Cruise stands at a measly 5’ 7”, the hulking Reacher of the page famously towers at a comparably mighty 6’ 5” — indeed, from what I’ve read, it’s one of the few physical features regularly attributed to the man. Fans of the film’s best-selling source material, who are many and who are loud, are justifiably displeased with the missing 10 inches: perhaps they would have preferred WWE-fighter-turned-leading-man Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (6’ 2” says google) stepping into Reacher’s boulder-sized boots — even then, that’s three inches too short.

But, and this is a question furiously fretted over throughout the centuries, does size really matter? For Cruise as Reacher, I think not. Now, I am admittedly unfamiliar with all 17 of the popular potboilers in which Reacher has appeared (so far). But what I am familiar with is Tom Cruise, and as the Reacher of Christopher McQuarrie’s hard-edged big-screen adaptation, the “Mission: Impossible” star fits the bill: Cruise brings to the titular role a roguish swagger, unflinching confidence, fierce physicality and a smooth charisma that does much to compensate for his limited stature. So what if he’s dwarfed by the beloved book-Reacher? He’ll kick your shins in in an instant and chew your ankles to the bone.

The story, based on Child’s “One Shot,” begins with a chilling, and all too relevant, act of violence. One morning, America is awoken by six gunshots: from a parking garage in Pittsburgh, a sniper shoots and kills five innocent bystanders, apparently at random. All evidence left at the scene leads to James Barr (James Sikora, “Shutter Island”), a military sniper who is promptly arrested. With a mountain of evidence stacked against their suspect, District Attorney Alex Rodin (Richard Jenkins, “The Cabin in the Woods”) and Detective Emerson (David Oyelowo, “Lincoln”) can’t believe their luck, though Barr stubbornly protests his innocence when interrogated. Seemingly about to confess, Barr instead scribbles three words: “Get Jack Reacher.”

And so Jack Reacher appears, all 5’ 7” of him, following a teasing sequence in which we follow the back of his head. Once a decorated military cop, Reacher now operates off the grid as a wandering drifter, travelling the lands on foot and by bus and carrying nothing but the clothes on his back and a fold-away toothbrush. He is tasked with aiding attorney Helen (Rosamund Pike, “Wrath of the Titans”), Rodin’s daughter, who is defending Barr in an attempt to get him off death row and consequently spite her overbearing father. As Reacher delves into the case, believing for good reason that Barr has indeed committed the crime, he begins to suspect that America’s most hated gunman is in fact the victim of a set-up.

This is a conclusion achieved through actual detection: unlike Tyler Perry’s Alex Cross, who waltzes into a crime scene and instantly knows all that has occurred, Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher does appear to do some investigatory legwork, while Cruise thankfully persuades for the most part as an analytical mental machine. Perhaps less convincing is the wise-cracking, pearly toothed A-lister as a brooding lone wolf and self-declared hobo: when one sees Mr Cruise sitting in a city bus, attempting to blend in with the poverty-stricken passengers, one can’t help but snigger at the sight.

He’s in far more comfortable territory roaring through the streets and back alleys of Pittsburgh in a black-striped, blood-red, beat-up dodge charger (stolen, I should add), and engaging in brawls and shoot-outs with henchmen and thugs. In a sharply choreographed street fight, he effortlessly takes on five barroom bullies at the same time, or should that be three: “The last two guys, they always run,” he warns. And they do.

His investigation leads him to discovering the real shooter (Jai Courtney, soon to be John McClane’s son in “A Good Day to Die Hard”), the gun range owner with whom Barr practiced (screen legend Robert Duvall) and, most surprisingly, Werner Herzog, the Bond baddy who never was. The esteemed, hopelessly eccentric German filmmaker and documentarian (who once cooked and ate his own shoe) makes a truly terrifying appearance as chief villain The Zec, a violent Russian mobster. In one scene of knuckle-gnawing intensity, he forces an incompetent underling to chew off his own fingers (“Show me you’ll do anything to survive”). Notably, Herzog wears a milky-white contact lens in one eye, presumably to make him appear more menacing. It seems unnecessary: spend enough time in the company of Herzog, he’ll have you convinced to chew your own fingers off too.

It’s a pity he’s so underused and that the run-of-the-mill story, infused with the twisty-turny sensibilities of an airport page-turner, leaves the film lying somewhere in the middle of the road. The film also comes to a disappointingly generic close: in an action-packed showdown at a rain-soaked rock quarry, Helen ends up a helpless damsel in distress, while Reacher, when faced with an unarmed key antagonist, decides to drop his gun and start a fistfight. Why do they always do that?

But “Jack Reacher” is an above-average crime thriller, directed with slickness and written with pristine pulpy wit by McQuarrie (whose deviously clever script for “The Usual Suspects” earned him an Oscar in 1995). It grips and occasionally it thrills: if a new blockbuster franchise is intended, this is a solid enough start. Many will not be sold on Cruise as Reacher, if only for those missing ten inches, but remember: big things can come in small packages.

6/10