You can hate on Tom Cruise all you want. Lord knows I do. Fact is, however, few people in Hollywood are picking better projects. Cruise has a narrowly defined zone – has to be action, has to be hero, has to be at least a tad intellectual (gotta give the audience something to think about instead of plausibility), has to have a love interest – even if he’s not interested, which is weird, but ok. He seems done with most major genres. All he asks is that he looks good on film … and, yes, damn him, he continues to look good on film. You can’t consistently say the same of any of his peers, including the ones who are better actors, like Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, and Robert Downey Jr.
Jack Reacher is not the best thing Cruise does, but it sure doesn’t hurt him – even if he’s not the proper prototypical protagonist projected by Lee Child. Cruise plays Reacher as self-assured, dangerous, trouble-seeking, and yet curiously introverted, so even he finds the wonder in seeking the company of Major Turner (Cobie Smulders). Reacher is a fighter, not a lover; he seeks villains to destroy, not company to keep, right? I suppose we can’t be at all surprised when Reacher’s playdate in DC goes MIA; Turner has been imprisoned for treason. Reacher to the rescue!
Gotta love a movie action plot – within literally 15 minutes of investigation, we discover: Reacher might have a daughter, Turner is likely to be murdered long before trial, Turner AND Reacher are being framed, and Turner’s lawyer is a stooge. It takes one document to get all that. As a result, Reacher feels responsible and collects both Turner and the would-be daughter (Danika Yarosh) and goes on the lam for the purpose of secret Reacher investigation and to avoid a particularly nasty assassin appropriately titled “The Hunter” (Patrick Heusinger).
Awww, isn’t that sweet? A nuclear family … with two badass parents … on the run. There’s an anxiety-filled dynamic here by which Reacher has an assumed relationship with both tagalongs that is far greater than his actual relationship. He feels responsible for this woman he’d like to date and this teenager who might be his, but none of us would blame him for putting them in a safe house and walking away: “Not my circus. Not my monkeys.” On top of this layer is the dimension that neither female is terribly wild about playing a passive role in her fate. Reacher, always a solo act, has to appreciate Turner didn’t get to be a major in the U.S. Army at age thirtysomething without being a fair problem-solver in her own right.
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back makes a real effort to find some of the humanity the first iteration deliberately lacked. Jack Reacher presented a super detective ass-kicking machine. Never Go Back wants 
to pretend there’s a softer side and one capable of change and growth. Dare I ask? I would actually like to see the pre-history where young Jack presumably goes from (somewhat) normal guy to the drifter of righteous destruction. Do Reacher and Turner have a chance as a future couple? How do we feel about Jack Reacher, family man?
So, yeah, this ain’t the Jack Reacher of the novels, who more closely resembles Dolph Lundgren (shape and size-wise anyway), but I, for one, am satisfied enough with this version to encourage more of it – for now, it isn’t a reach.
♪All these times he’s come
Not the print version
G-men don’t fear the Reacher
Nor do the brass, MPs or Ukraine
We can be like they are
Come on extras, don’t fear Jack Reacher
Baby close that book, don’t fear Jack Reacher
6’ 3” my ass, don’t fear Jack Reacher
Baby that’s the plan♫
Rated PG-13, 118 Minutes
D: Edward Zwick
W: Richard Wenk and Edward Zwick & Marshall Herskovitz
Genre: Mr. Badass, Ms. Badass and all the little Badasses
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Fans of dysfunctional action families
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: The folks who say Tom Cruise does not fit Lee Child’s description
♪ Parody inspired by “Don’t Fear the Reaper”
