Very well done

Rating: Null/10 (11 July 2002)

Ahh, finally, a really enjoyable Tom Cruise movie.
I go to see Tom Cruise because he fascinates me. Unfortunately, I didn't really like his last 3 movies (Eyes Wide Shut, Mission Impossible II, and Vanilla Sky.) My fascination with him has kept me going back. It's been like a series of bad dates, where I keep going because I love the guy, even though his taste in movies really turns me off.
This film was different. I did enjoy it.
Tom's acting was superb. My local critic said that all Tom did in the way of acting was "grim determination." These critics make me so mad. This description was just totally false. Tom did love, grief, humor, idealism, and drug addiction. Tom did some positively beautiful ballet-like movements coordinated with music, when controlling the pre-cog displays. (He really should do a dance movie. He's got that wonderful muscle tension that would make him such a great dancer and we know from Mission Impossible II that he's got very impressive jumps and kicks.) He even got really doe-eyed at some points, which I've never seen him do before.
Steven Spielberg is obviously the right director for Tom. It's nice that they finally found each other.
Kudos to Samantha Morton as well. She was utterly convincing as an emotionally disturbed pre-cog trying to break out into humanity.
Spielberg's talent showed in other ways as well. There were no slow or draggy places. The special effects all worked very well, never looking jerky or fake. The suspense was good and held my attention without being unbearable. The editing was excellent.
Despite the grimness, dark backgrounds, suspense, and just just general negativity of the whole thing, there were the occasional light moments as well. I just loved all the comical ways the little mechanical spiders interrupted people's lives in the apartment building, for instance when an angry mom stood in the way of these self-important pre-crime cops and told them off for scaring her kids. I also loved the way the silly DJ started worshipping the pre-cog and apologizing for his inner thoughts.
Still, you have to recognize that a Tom Cruise film is a Tom Cruise film, and he does dominate it. For those of us who are Tom Cruise fans, this is a plus. You get to see him in cutoffs and observe a lot of the results of his body work in close detail. You also get to see him run, again, which is one of his greatest talents in my book. His running is SO beautiful. Other people look flat footed running next to him. He looks delightfully protective when he puts his arm around Samantha Morton. This is the kind of thing that just curls my toes with pleasure. Of course, Tom is always generating marvelous chemistry.
Anyway, the movie is well worth seeing.