Paramount Pictures
130 min., dir. by Christopher McQuarrie, with Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, and Werner Herzog

Embodying what may be the single worst character name in fictional history, Tom Cruise continues his trip down the Bruce Willis action hero road of middle aged ass-kickery. As the titular Jack Reacher, Cruise portrays a hulking man-beast of uncaged fury and skill that you don’t want to mess with. With not enough exposition behind all of its characters, Jack Reacher finds itself wading in the grey area of ultra-violent no-holds-barred darkness and PG-13 crowd-pleasing puffiness.

With almost no motivation, Army sniper vet James Barr (Joseph Sikora) drives his conspicuous, windowless van to a parking garage across the way from Pittsburgh’s PNC Park and shoots five random people. After his arrest, the silent Barr writes a note that reads “Get Jack Reacher.” An ex-Army cop, Reacher (Cruise) is practically a ghost, living off the grid, making it difficult for the interested parties to find him. However, when Reacher sees Barr’s face on the news, he emerges and becomes the unwilling investigator for Barr’s defense lawyer, Helen Rodin (Rosamund Pike) — who just happens to be the DA’s daughter. Reacher comes to realize that things are not what they seem as he is chased down and attacked at every possible turn.

An action/mystery is going to play games with its audience. The games played in Jack Reacher, however, are a confounding ball of inconsistency. It’s clear from the first minute that you see Barr that he’s not the shooter. We see the shooter’s face and completely different hairstyle from the get-go. While the viewer is aware of the situation, the characters are not, so it’s fine that they still see Barr as the guilty party. However, the way the film is presented, it’s almost expected that the public is supposed to agree that Barr is the shooter.

You’d expect Jack Reacher to drop little hints along the way, making the plot fairly obvious, even if you don’t figure it out until the characters explain it all. An hour or so into the film, the bomb is dropped as to the true motives behind the mass shooting, throwing out names and businesses involved that haven’t appeared until that moment. It creates a level of disconnect between the viewer’s emotions and the primal action aspect of the film.

It’s upsetting to see the under-use of some great talent. Richard Jenkins is there to fill a clichéd character type that he’s overqualified for, and Werner Herzog as the film’s uber-villain is one of the most dumbfounding casting decisions I’ve seen in a long time. He has only two scenes in the entire movie, and his character’s back story is so flimsy that his supposed twisted evil nature never is fully realized.

It has to be said that some people will have some emotional and moral discord with the film for its portrayal of a child being scoped by a sniper rifle at the beginning of the film. The film’s premiere was pushed back due to the tragedy in Connecticut, and certainly the film has nothing to do with those events and can’t help that the timing is bad; however, it seems an odd push to keep in the holiday lineup. I’m the type of person who can disconnect enough from those feelings to not have it affect me, but there are many who may not be able to — so it should be said that this happens in the film, so people aren’t unassuming of what they will see if they go to see Jack Reacher. Though, you may want to stay away from Jack Reacher anyway, as it never fully realizes what it should be.

—

Matthew Schuchman is the founder and film critic of Movie Reviews From Gene Shalit’s Moustache and a contributor to Den of Geek.