This is, after all, a Hollywood fantasy starring Mr. Cruise as Barry Seal, a real-life smuggler. Mr. Liman likes playing with Mr. Cruise’s persona, say, by messing up that famous smile, and he clearly likes letting his star strut and glide. Mr. Cruise’s brisk, ingratiating performance — all smiles, hard-charging physicality and beads of sweat — does a lot to soften the edges. (It’s hard not to think that Mr. Cruise signed on to the movie so he could do all his own flying.) So it’s too bad that Mr. Liman himself didn’t burrow in here as a filmmaker.

Source: New York Times September 28, 2017 17:26 UTC