June 29, 2010 -- It seems that from the moment Tom Cruise jumped up on Oprah Winfrey's couch, his career has gone steadily downhill. That is the moment that Cruise stopped being a movie star and came to be regarded as just another celebrity nutball, of which there are way too many already. His latest attempt at a comeback, the action romantic comedy “Knight and Day” has already flopped. It's not a bad film, really, but not the hit Cruise hoped it would be either. Instead, it is an adequate action film that looks a lot like a vehicle for a couple of aging actors trying to hang on to stardom a little bit longer.

Cruise stars as super secret agent Roy Miller (real name, Knight). Through a series of circumstances, he gets tangled up with a pretty civilian named June Havens (played by Cameron Diaz of “In Her Shoes”). Also tangled up in this spy versus spy business is a brilliant young inventor, Simon Feck (Paul Dano of “Taking Woodstock”). Both Feck and his revolutionary energy source are the target of agents willing to sell the secret to the highest bidder. Miller's mission is to protect Feck and the secret of the energy source, while trying to keep himself, Feck and Havens alive. Literally everyone is after the three when Miller is framed for murder. He is regarded as a rogue agent by his own spy agency. The rest of the movie is a series of narrow escapes and efforts to reveal the identity of those who framed Miller.

This is a summer action film and it does deliver on the promise of action. While the action is so extreme as to border on silliness, this is often done intentionally for comic effect. The romance between Miller and Havens doesn't work as well. Havens identity as a restorer of classic muscle cars isn't very believable (think of Jennifer Beals as a welder in “Flashdance”) and Miller seems a bit mentally unstable. They don't seem like a very good match. Similar romances in “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and “Mission Impossible III” worked better because the romantic pair were more evenly matched in skills and temperament. Hint: When your career is on the rocks because people are questioning your mental stability, it is not a good idea to play a character in a movie who seems to be mentally unstable. The character of Feck fits poorly into the plot. He has little to do except to act as an awkward third wheel in the romance between Miller and Havens. Academy Award nominated actress Viola Davis (“Doubt”) is largely wasted here as a clueless bureaucrat. What she needed was the writer who wrote the part of Pamela Landy in “The Bourne Supremacy” and “The Bourne Ultimatum.” Cruise and Diaz perform well in the film. As is often the case, the problem is with the writing, not with the acting. This film rates a C+.

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