“Minority Report” (2002)
A heady, ambitious sci-fi that is also an entertaining, satisfying and even thought-provoking whizz-bang piece of filmmaking from Steven Spielberg, this was also probably the final role of Phase 1/pre-Matt Lauer meltdown/pre-couch jumping Tom Cruise. And it finds Cruise at his Cruise-iest, with the actor playing a heroic lawman who fully believes in the Orwellian system he works under, until he’s accused of murdering a man he’s never met, and becomes the target of the very tactics he himself had mastered. The set up is pretty much the ultimate everyman-in-crisis role that Cruise circled in more workmanlike films like “The Firm” or “A Few Good Men” but here, aided by a smart script, and guided by the sure lens of Spielberg at the top of his game, the performance is one of an A-list actor at the height of his powers, even given a little gravitas by contrast with his gum-snapping younger shadow/pursuer, played by Colin Farrell. Cruise, playing an emotionally stunted man wounded by personal tragedy and winded by the revelations about the institution he crusaded for, finds the perfect center of vulnerability and gritty determination in a film that feels like it gets better with every passing year.
“Collateral” (2004)
If “Magnolia” was Cruise flexing against his megastar noble leading man persona in a small role, Michael Mann‘s minimal, sleek thriller “Collateral” might be the most satisfying example of him doing that as a lead. Co-starring with a subdued Jamie Foxx (in one of his best turns so far too), the film’s story is very simple: Cruise plays Vincent, a killer who hires a cab to drive him around Los Angeles for the night, dragging Foxx’s driver into his murderous schemes. Unlike other A-list actors who often overact and flail about in “bad guy” roles, Cruise goes the opposite direction into lethal, peroxide quietude. Vincent is both compelling and creepy, it’s almost an animalistic turn (it’s hard not to see the coyote that he’s so mesmerized by as a psychological twin) and Cruise really sellsthe scenes in which Vincent rationalizes his behavior, and his take-no-quarter worldview. Even if the film turns into a disappointingly conventional shoot-em-up by the end, most of the film sees Cruise the actor truly risk a great deal: it’s a role that finds him out on the ledge without his grin or his athleticism to fall back on, and it’s one we always hope to see more of.
“Tropic Thunder” (2008)
While Cruise has a way with a one-liner, and can deliver a self-deprecating riff with the best of them, he rarely appears in out-and-out comedies. Indeed when the dial on his usually reliable action-hero/romantic lead image notches too close to knockabout, we get “Knight and Day” and Cruise gets a rare flop. So it was a surprise to see him crop up in Ben Stiller‘s extravagantly silly, very funny “Tropic Thunder,” even if the full impact was somewhat lessened by a leaked set photo of the star in bald cap and fatsuit. Still, Les Grossman, the utterly repulsive studio boss is a sensational cameo, even in a film that features Robert Downey Jr. in blackface, partly because of the inside baseball vibe to Cruise playing an industry honcho, partly because of the near-unrecognisable grotesquerie of his costume, and partly because Cruise is just so outright revoltingly funny. Bawling out inferiors or thrusting deeply unattractive sexual dance moves at the camera throughout the end credits, he seems to have a blast being incognito, so much so it engendered talk of a Les Grossman movie. Much as we love this performance, we hope it never happens — this tasty little morsel feels way too rich to be served as a main.
