Chemistry class

Please don't make us kiss!


Watching Knight and Day the other night, I was struck by how little heat I sensed between Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. Here are two attractive, charismatic actors in great physical shape but I didn’t believe for a second that they wanted to sleep with each other.

Then it occurred to me that I’ve really never seen Tom Cruise exude chemistry with anybody. Certainly not with then-wife Nicole Kidman in Eyes Wide Shut. Not with then-girlfriend Penelope Cruz in Vanilla Sky. He had a nice rapport with Renee Zellweger in Jerry Maguire, but it was chaste. Top Gun? He had more chemistry with Val Kilmer than Kelly McGillis (and here’s where the gay rumors kick in). Perhaps Risky Business is the last Tom Cruise performance that was downright sexy.

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Song of the Day #709: ‘I Will Always Love You’ – Lauren Graham

Here’s another of those musical moments in a TV show or movie that uses song and performance for a big emotional impact. I’d love to dedicate an entire blog to scenes like this one but they’re very hard to come by on the Web because of those pesky copyright laws.

Along with my wife, I was a pretty loyal watcher of Gilmore Girls for most of its run. But when creator Amy Sherman-Palladino left the show toward the end of its run, I tuned out. The show was so much a product of her sensibility (she and/or her husband wrote almost every single episode, which is extremely rare in network TV) that it just felt like another show about the same characters. It didn’t help that our cable provider stopped carrying The CW.

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Song of the Day #708: ‘Fast As You Can’ – Fiona Apple

I love Fiona Apple’s work for many reasons. Primary among them is her voice. And not just the quality of her voice (which, she’d be the first to admit, is not technically perfect) but the way she uses it to convey the passion and pathos in her songs.

I also love her choice of instrumentation. The production on her albums is top-notch and she always manages to surround her piano with strings, horns, interesting percussion… all kinds of sonic goodies that feel somehow old-fashioned and ahead of their time all at once. Jon Brion deserves a lot of that credit, I think, but he’s actually produced only one of her three albums and they all share a similar vibe.

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Knight and Day

On her show last week, Oprah Winfrey referred to Knight and Day — the new Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz action comedy — as a perfect date movie. And that about sums up the appeal of this ridiculous but fun mash-up of James Bond and Romancing the Stone.

You don’t watch this movie to dissect the craft or to seek some insight into the human condition. You watch it while sharing a tub of popcorn and an overpriced Coke with your best girl (or guy) and you hope that you’ll both walk out with a smile on your face.

On that front, Knight and Day accomplishes its mission.

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