A Grassy Knoll Scenario

Rating: 6/10 (27 December 2012)

Tom Cruise stars in Jack Reacher who is like a modern day Simon Templar without the elegance. We're not sure just what side of the law our protagonist is on, he certainly dislikes being called a hero.
It is understandable that the debut of this film was postponed with the tragedy of the Sandy Hook school shooting as the film opens with just such a shooting from one side of the Allegany River to another in Pittsburgh. A loner ex-GI with a penchant for violence who trained as a sniper who it is broadly hinted has done similarly evil stuff in the past gets accused of a mass shooting where six people die.
There was a really good Law And Order episode where Sebastian Stan plays a high school kid who shot four people at random to cover up his intended target. That's what's going on here. And as investigator Reacher sees, there's a grassy knoll scenario being played here.
Cruise whose latest films have a decidedly more violent bent to them, seems determined to finally shake off that youthful image that has stood him in good stead with films going way back to All The Right Moves. He doesn't look like the all American kid in his Twenties, but as the male player with the surest box office draw he can't exactly transition to character roles the way others can.
One guy who successfully has is Robert Duvall who has a colorful and eye catching role as the owner of a rifle range whose clientèle has the key to this mystery. Duvall and Cruise are reunited from Days Of Thunder as Duvall serves as backup. Guys like the folks in back of the massacre are giving gun owners and shooters a bad name which is why he teams with Cruise. That is a message I'm not sure how it will be received in this climate.
Rosamund Pike plays the attorney with father issues personal and legal who is representing the accused shooter. When your father is played by Richard Jenkins who is also the District Attorney those issues do tend to multiply. She's afraid of Reacher's own violent tendencies, but goes with the flow.
You can't tell about these things and certainly the Sandy Hook shooting throws a pall on this film. Still there's enough shooting, enough car chases to satisfy any action fan. And Tom Cruise's global legion of fans will have little to complain about.