In Defense of Tom Cruise and Knight and Day

Something about Tom Cruise seems to draw out our worst qualities. ¬†In many ways, we are an enlightened, evolved culture. ¬†But all too often, and especially now with so much information and opinion flying around, we settle into our more distasteful inclinations. We are a petty species. ¬†When you really boil it down, how is it possible that the worm would turn on Tom Cruise the way it did based on his jumping on the couch on Oprah? ¬†Or riding around with Katie Holmes on a motor cycle, or having Suri, or calling Katie Holmes Kate. ¬†These are just the small things, of course. ¬†The big things are Scientology, the continual accusations that he’s a gay man living a lie – that he entertains young men in his trailer on sets and Katie Holmes has signed some agreement that makes her willing to trade her personal life for a career.

I probably shouldn’t admit this publicly, but I’m not one to believe in the Easter Bunny, nor Santa Claus. ¬†I don’t pray at all, and I don’t believe we are all here for a reason, or that anything ever happens for a reason. I don’t think that those who survive a plane crash did so by God’s grace (because, what, everyone else deserved to die?). ¬†I don’t even think there is such a thing as Karma. ¬†Life is random, unpredictable, and many things happen for no reason at all.

I also think we are prone to hysterics.  We are still the same species willing to believe in Salem witches and scary men from Mars.  And I think the whole Tom Cruise thing is a lot of hot air.

I have always thought it was one of those stories that has been floating around, told and retold with determination. ¬†You know, like the Richard Gere gerbil story or the Rod Stewart and gallons of sperm found in his stomach. ¬†My stories date me. ¬†I’m sure you youngins have plenty of these stories floating around, none of them are likely true.

Is Tom Cruise gay? I have no idea. ¬†I have heard people swear they know so and so who worked on such and such and saw this or that. ¬†Is Tom Cruise a Scientologist? Yes. ¬†Is it a creepy religion? ¬†I guess so, but no more creepy than Mormonism or Catholicism. ¬†What’s weirder than believing Mary was given divine sperm and had the Baby Jesus? Isn’t it more likely she was an unwed mother fearing being stoned to death and therefore agreed to go along with the big lie? ¬†I don’t mean to offend anyone, but the truth is that religion is weird, period. ¬†Just because one has been around longer than another doesn’t make one less creepy than the other. Or maybe it does. I’m not here to decide that. I’m just saying Scientology isn’t much weirder. ¬†We’re talking about believing in a fantasy – what does it matter if it is a Christian one or a space alien one?

Here is what I know about Tom Cruise: he’s a good actor. ¬†He did his own stunts in Knight and Day and that’s cool. ¬†Liking Tom Cruise is not cool. ¬†But if I cared about being cool I probably would have ditched the occasional Crocs and ugly camo cargo pants I sometimes wear in public. ¬†And let’s not even go into the hair.

Now, Vulture has pointed us to an article written in the LA Times that blames the marketing, not Tom Cruise’s star power, for the reasons Knight and Day did not top Toy Story, or Grown Ups.

In Hollywood, when a movie fails to open, the blame game begins in earnest. Many in the media thought the problem started¬†with Cruise, who did tons of press for the film but couldn’t pull moviegoers into the multiplexes. Many in the industry, including several people close to the film, were privately pointing fingers¬†at Fox co-chairman Tom Rothman, who picked the movie’s title, its release date and micromanaged its marketing campaign, down to approving stills and press kits for the film.

Also coming under fire was Tony Sella — Fox’s co-president of¬†marketing, who is viewed as one of the best in the business — for having done a poor job of positioning the $117-million film, the studio’s third consecutive dud of the summer, after “Marmaduke” and “The A-Team.” Sella’s critics say that¬†audiences¬†were confused by the studio’s initial trailer for the film, which ran on the front of “Avatar,” the¬†phenomenally successful James Cameron film that¬†dominated the box office this year. When tracking about audience interest in “Knight and Day” became available several weeks ago, the numbers were surprisingly¬†low. Despite¬†frantic efforts by Fox to reconfigure the¬†film’s marketing message, the numbers never recovered.

Here is how I know the marketing failed: my twelve year-old daughter and her friend not only pestered me to take them to see it (I probably wouldn’t have paid to see it otherwise) but they quoted it afterwards and immediately wanted to see it again. ¬†This had nothing to do with my own personal influence, mind you. ¬†Somehow, through it all, they managed to draw in a couple of California tweens. ¬†This was their untapped market. ¬†Older women aren’t that interested, as it turns out. ¬†Manboys and fanboys probably don’t care that much. ¬†This should have been aimed at kids.

In a rare interview Monday morning, Sella, who is painfully media shy but¬†a delightful raconteur when he’s far away from a¬†tape recorder,¬†took full responsibility for the¬†film’s¬†poor showing.¬†He¬†was especially vocal — and unusually candid — when it came to¬†the issue of the Cruise Factor. “Blame me, don’t blame Tom Cruise,” he said. “We did lots of¬†focus groups for this film, and no one ever said there was a star problem. Never. Tom¬†Cruise was not the issue.¬†I take full responsibility.” He laughed. “And if the movie¬†ends up going to $100 million, I want full responsibility too.”

Sella contends that the silhouette-style representations of the film’s stars weren’t meant to hide the actors from view. “I was doing an homage to [fabled title designer] Saul Bass,” he explained. “It was a way for us to signal that this was a different, adult kind of movie. The whole campaign was designed to evoke¬†a film like ‘North by Northwest.’ It wasn’t in any way us trying to hide anyone, simply to make the film look unique, so you didn’t just look at the billboards as if they were designed to say, ‘The Two Stars Go Here.’ ”

Sella acknowledged that the film’s initial trailer didn’t get its message across properly. But he insists that Fox wasn’t asleep at the switch when the lousy tracking numbers began showing up, as some critics have contended. “We knew there was an audience disconnect, and we reacted and tried to adjust the spots accordingly,” he said. “You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that when you got your trailer out in front of the biggest movie of all time and you still didn’t have the tracking numbers you should have, it wasn’t an awareness problem. It was a problem with our message.

Having been forced to see Knight and Day I found it a pleasant Summer flick, much better than the usual shite I have to sit through. ¬†Tom Cruise was perfectly cast and, as usual, totally delivered. ¬†Cameron Diaz has, frankly, never been better. ¬†Many of the reviews say the same thing: they weren’t expecting much but they were pleasantly surprised. ¬†There were more than a few full on bad reviews by writers who absolutely hated the movie. ¬†I’m here to tell you that I didn’t hate it. ¬†Not only didn’t I hate it, but I’d see it again. ¬†So there.

All of this Tom Cruise hate has soured my opinion of the general public. ¬†I think we can be a nasty beast as a collective, and I hope that there are ways to keep this in check so that we don’t look back in horror at our weaknesses.