Film - Double Take: The Bright Side of Tom Cruise's Crazy

Tom Cruise. Scientology. Couch jumping. Crazy. Drove his wife away. We’ve all been well trained to picture silly aliens and feel distrustful when he’s brought up. The man, once the world’s biggest movie star, is now a favorite punch line. But the question I have to ask is – is that fair? The man’s an actor so shouldn’t the only relevant consideration be whether or not he act? To answer the question, I turned to the quintessential Tom Cruise movie,A Few Good Men.

Picking the movie was difficult. ButMenhad to win over the other choices - the movie that introduced him as a star,Risky Business, his flagship,Mission Impossible, and his outside-the-box movie,Interview with the Vampire(an amazingly campy film in which Cruise, in a long blond wig, is the undeniable charismatic center) - because it showcases Cruise’s greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses. InMen, Cruise plays Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, a lawyer in the Navy JAG Corps, who is assigned to defend two Marines accused of killing a weaker member of their unit. He is assisted by Demi Moore’s Lieutenant Commander JoAnne Galloway and Kevin Pollack’s Lieutenant Sam Weinberg. In his search for the truth, Kaffee is up against the formidable Colonel Jessup (played with relish by Jack Nicholson), a man who clearly has something to hide.

The set-up for the film is fairly standard and that, too, is my main complaint with Kaffee. When he first appears in the film, casually negotiating an outrageously good plea deal for a clientwhileplaying softball, it is clear what type of character Kaffee will be. And he plays exactly into every assumption: Kaffee is young, handsome, and preternaturally talented. But he is also lazy and has some pretty serious daddy issues. All in all, not an unfamiliar protagonist. For the first bit of the film, Cruise doesn’t really elevate the character from this very basic mold. Don’t get me wrong, Cruise is delightful in the role; he is completely charming and, when it is needed, he is funny - but he isn’t fiercely compelling in the way great actors are.

Cruise shines the most when Kaffee experiences extreme emotions. That is, he is more convincing when getting frustrated at his client’s refusal to accept a plea deal than he is when having a conversation with his friend, Lt. Weinberger. In the more casual scenes, there is a slight awareness that he isacting. Thankfully, this awareness melts away when Kaffee gets angry, gets drunk, and the like. That is when he is compelling; you can’t take your eyes away as he gets excited and, what’s better, you really believe him.

Accordingly, Cruise’s best acting comes in his climactic confrontation with Colonel Jessup. This is saying a lot because, Nicholson, as Jessup, is at the top of his game. He is transparently evil, but in a serious, frightening, realistic way. Nicholson’s trademark crazy is carefully restrained in this role, but you can still see it shining through every once in a while. In this scene, on which the balance of the entire movie hinges, everything rests on Cruise. If he didn’t match Nicholson, the audience’s sympathy could have been transferred to the villain or the ending could have seemed unrealistic. But Cruise brings it. It’s a rare perfect scene, just beautifully executed on all accounts. As the tension builds, Cruise carefully telegraphs his fear and uncertainty. There are a lot of close shots so any overacting would ruin everything. And then - well, I don’t want to spoil anything, but the two actors eventually come together in a final, explosive manner, one so superb that, even though I wasn’t watching the film for the first time, I had to rewind and watch it twice more.

A Few Good Menis really a very engaging movie. It does hit a lot of the familiar beats of a legal drama but this, just like the slightly clichéd nature of the main character, does not prevent the cinematic enjoyment. Tom Cruise is quite good in it. He is a limited actor, more in his acting element during passionate extremes than creating a naturalistic performance. No doubt, this is one of the reasons why he’s chosen to appear in so many action movies (well, that and the money). But, even if no one could accuse him of having range, he is very, very good at what he is good at. When you leave Xenu out of it, his intensity is a positive thing, his way of pulling the audience in. If you give him a chance, if you are willing to forget about Scientology for the length of a film, I’m betting he could pull you in too.