Stardom. . . Redeemed

Some years back I abandoned Tom Cruise to his fate and swore off his movies. Ugh. Just couldn't separate actor from "star." And there was plenty of the "star" that I found unpalatable and just plain disagreeable. Arrogance, inflated self-importance, nutty ideas, condescencion. Need I go on? And America and Hollywood seemed to fall out of love with the actor just as I did. He lost popularity and contracts and a couple of his movies semi-tanked. . . and even a semi-tank is disastrous for a star of his magnitude.

The last movie I saw with him was "Valkerie," where he lost an eye, tried unsuccessfully to blow up Hitler, and then died. Not a big winner. He wasn't Tom Cruise, he was a place holder. I knew I was supposed to be involved in his character's fate, but I wasn't. It was still Tom Cruise and I wasn't a fan. Plus, the movie ended with all the good guys dying. Who the heck in Hollywood thought THAT would be a raging success? Even "Schindler's List" gave us hope that some of the good people would survive!

Anyway. . . time marches on and when I saw the trailer for "Knight and Day", it was. . . surprisingly interesting. Humor. There would be humor. And action. I am a sucker for action, especially done with humor and style. So I slated it for a Friday night and waited. And after last Friday night, I am happy to report, I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED! REALLY GOOD MOVIE!

It was a romantic action comedy. . . told with a narrative style that had us skipping over the messy details and landing in the fun action again. . . with character development and everything! Plus, the chemistry between Cameron Diaz and Tom was lovely. Just the right balance between ditzy modern girl in search of something and serious-but-off-the-nut spy in need of. . . something. That something turns out to be each other. Nice. Very nice.

Lots of sexual tension, but not a lot of steamy action-- fine for the teenage nieces and nephews who accompanied us. And laughs. . . the guys in the audience laughed quite a bit and the gals giggled at the nuttiness that was actually fairly believable. In short, my kind of story. Totally. Even the bulls.
And each character grew. . . especially Cameron. She began to own her "skills" and to participate and got to kick butt with Tom in the end. You could see respect and affection growing amid the crazy pace of action. And every time things started to get romantic-- like on a remote idyllic island-- something happened to interrupt, something plausible, and we were off and running again! Great timing and wonderful scenery. Romance and adventure. Gimmmmmeeee more!

So, to make a long story short-- Tom Cruise is back on my "to see" list. He has been redeemed in my eyes. At least as long as he doesn't go dark and weird on me again. And I started to think about forgiveness and about how we should allow people in our lives to recant, recoup and be redeemed. . . whether it's a friendship, a relationship, or a painful family situation. . . we need to make room for change in our hearts and lives. Even for fallen stars.

Yes, there are plot holes in the movie, but they're handled in amusing and interesting ways. Yes, it's a little over the top, but the characters seem so genuine that they get by with it. PLUS they were smart enough to use TANGO music as the score for much of the suspenseful parts! And it worked like magic! So much so that I kinda want to see it again. .. if just to make sure I wasn't imagining how good I thought it was.
Any of you see it? What did you think? And to think that most of America went to see Adam Sandler and the goofs in Grown-Ups this weekend. They missed a golden opportunity in not seeing Knight and Day, instead.

What about you? Any stars you can't abide seeing? Any whose off-screen lives/behavior taints their performances? What would it take for you to want to see them on the screen again?