In Laman's Turns: It's Time For Tom Cruise To Embrace Bold Roles Again

Tom Cruise's career trajectory absolutely fascinates me. Once Risky Business happened and cemented Mr. Cruise as a movie star, he had well over two decades of prosperity as a leading man, one that was marked by a notable sense of variety. Cruise had some notably popular action movies in this era (Top Gun of course as well as the Mission: Impossible features and two early 21st century Steven Spielberg blockbusters) but he predominately did dramas in the 1980's and 1990's. The likes of Born Again On The Fourth Of July, Jerry Maguire, Rain Man, The Firm, Magnolia and Eyes Wide Shut paired him with a whose-who of famous auteurs that led him to frequently high box office and similarly recurring (though not always there, of course) critical praise.


So what happened to Mr. Cruise that stopped this streak of success? The promotional tour for his 2005 feature War Of The Worlds, that's what. The one where he jumped on Oprah's couch and became embroiled in all kinds of unsavory accusations towards him that involved his connections to Scientology. A controversial episode of South Park lampooning Scientology and Cruise that was rumored to be drawing Tom Cruise's ire as well as the major box office misfire that was Mission: Impossible III in 2006 cemented that the bloom was off the rose for America's favorite movie star for 20 years.

In the wake of these controversies, Cruise embarked on a supporting role in Tropic Thunder that was unlike anything else he had ever done as he portrayed an obese foul-mouthed studio executive by the name of Les Grossman. It's a hilarious performance in an absolutely hysterical motion picture and the scene where Cruise unleashes a steady stream of profanities unto a bunch of people trying to hold some big movie stars hostage is a thing of beauty. Right after that, he starred in Valkyrie, a Bryan Singer thriller that did decent box office that ended up being the second of only two efforts (the other being the 2007 bomb Lions For Lambs) from a much-ballyhooed deal between Tom Cruise and struggling Hollywood studio United Artists.

Tropic Thunder was a film that seemed to signal that Cruise was about to try to spin this controversial patch of his career into a positive by using it as a launchpad for more bold and unconventional performances...but alas, that's not what happened. Instead, Cruise seemed to abandon any pretense of risky projects in favor of trying to channel the happy-go-lucky action hero persona of his most popular movies, the Mission: Impossible franchise. That's what he tried to do with the thoroughly forgettable 2010 film Knight And Day, which became one of his lowest grossing movies ever as a leading man. Cruise got a reprieve after that when the fourth Mission: Impossible movie bowed the following Christmas to major box office, but the only real downside to that excellent feature's success is that it seemed to cement in Cruise's mind that solely playing the action hero archetype was the only career path forward for him.

So we got back-to-back forgettable Tom Cruise action movies in the form of Jack Reacher and Oblivion, neither of which lit up the box office. His 2014 film Edge of Tomorrow ended up being such a pleasant surprise because it actually had Cruise playing a character, one with more flaws and personality to it than the bland leads of Knight And Day and Jack Reacher. Cruise is a talented guy and Edge of Tomorrow reinforced just how much of a shame it was that he was filling out his time as an actor this decade as the star of a bunch of forgettable action films. A fifth Mission: Impossible movie proved to be another quality win for the actor, but following that came a Jack Reacher sequel I never even saw and the underwhelming box office numbers it received indicate many people also decided to skip it.

Maybe the nadir of this stretch of Cruise's career of trying to replicate the magic of his Mission: Impossible action movie leading man persona came this year in the form of The Mummy. One of the worst movies of 2017 so far, The Mummy is a disaster that has a woefully miscast Cruise just waltzing around a tedious plotline without even a trace of a personality to his name. It's so sad to see a guy who, just 15 years prior, was working with Steven Spielberg on a regular basis starring in this kind of dreck. Why can't Tom Cruise just chart brand new paths for himself as an actor? Edge of Tomorrow showed just how much talent he has when playing actual characters instead of just attempts to harken back to the days of Top Gun.

It's obvious that Cruise wants to play things as safe as possible in order to compensate for the years he spent as a heavily-lampooned controversial figure in the first decade of the 21st century, which is only exemplified by how one of the only two movies he's doing in the near future is a Top Gun sequel. I really wish he would take on more interesting and unique dramatic roles again or even do supporting work! Fantastic performances awaited acting legends like Edward G. Robinson and Fred MacMurray once they decided to take on supporting roles instead of the leading man roles they were accustomed to. Change can be daunting, that's a natural human emotion, but it's also vital for anyone in any occupation. Stagnation is not natural and that goes double for actors who are clinging to one singular type of role to their detriment.

I have no doubt in my mind that Tom Cruise still has the talent to pull off potentially layered and complex supporting roles, ones that could open up a whole new chapter in his career. But I have my doubts he'll do that considering not only how heavily he's dabbled in cookie-cutter action fare in recent years but also given how he's embraced sequels like Jack Reacher, Top Gun and Edge of Tomorrow follow-ups that he used to entirely eschew unless they were Mission: Impossible continuations. Hopefully, more challenging roles lie in Tom Cruise's future because if not, well, I'll probably be left as irritable as one Mr. Les Grossman!