Heart in right place

Film review: Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

Tom Cruise reprises his role of ex-military operative Jack Reacher in Never Go Back. Directed by Edward Zwick (who previously directed Cruise in The Last Samurai), the film is based on the 18th installment of the Reacher series of novels as written by Lee Child — who coincidentally makes a cameo as an airport TSA agent checking Reacher’s stolen ID.

When the first film came out, based on the ninth book, a number of Reacher fans was outraged by Cruise’s casting, as the novels describe Reacher as 6’4” in height. Child’s cameo is perceived as a tacit thumbs up to the license taken by Cruise in assuming the role. A story that has to do with arms dealing and more, conspiracy and cover-ups, it also takes on the human side of the stoic Reacher by bringing us a side story about his possible parenthood of a now teenage daughter who unwittingly becomes a pawn in the deadly cat-and-mouse high stakes game being played.

In sharp contrast to his Mission Impossible film franchise, here Cruise gives Reacher a far more human veneer — down on money, at times mistaken for a homeless vagrant, Reacher hitchhikes between towns and basically relies on his integrity and military background to make ends meet. An ex-major, he forms a bond by phone with Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders) and when he reaches Washington DC, he is surprised to find that Susan has been arrested on charges of espionage. His determination to prove her innocence and how the military investigation she was heading regarding missing armaments deployed in the Middle East form part of a cover-up involving a New Orleans defense contractor called Para Source become the main thrust of the action adventure film. As mentioned, the human element is introduced via Samantha Dayton (Danika Yarosh), who might possibly be Reacher’s long lost daughter.

With the crime mystery at the heart of the story, there are numerous action sequences and several hand-to-hand fight scenes. There is an earnestness to the proceedings that augurs well for the film’s success with audiences. Tighter editing could have helped bring more focus to the film as it oscillates between the hard action and this reaching for an arc in Reacher’s persona via his evolving relationship with Samantha. Nowhere is this more evident than in the extended coda that stretches the film’s conclusion. There are moments when the film aspires too much playing both sides of this dichotomy. And personally, I found that at some point in the film, it relegates the more potentially interesting aspects of the Reacher-Susan friendship to the background.

Entertaining, and with its heart in the right place, I just wished they didn’t play up too much the strains of Reacher as some lone cowboy riding into town and doing a modified interpretation of Shane. But if anything, this is a second installment that actually improves on the first. Philip Cu Unjieng