Tom Cruise stars as Barry Seal, a shady airline pilot who gets hoodwinked by the CIA to fly planes and take spy photos for them. When they fail to give him a bonus, he takes to running drugs for the cartels to make ends meet. Naturally, when the CIA needs to put guns in the hands of the Contras, they call on Barry to fly them in. Pretty soon, Barry is running drugs, guns, AND soldiers. It’s a pretty sweet set-up, but it can’t last forever, can it?
Directed by Cruise’s Edge of Tomorrow collaborator Doug Liman, American Made is one of those Dark Side of the American Dream movies. Barry is after all, only trying to provide for his pregnant wife (Sarah Wright). Why work a dreary job flying planes for the airlines when you can bring home backpacks full of cash at the end of the workday? Of course, that means you’ll probably wind up being shot at, thrown in jail, or worse, but hey, so what?
American Made is basically Blow with planes. If you want to see a drama about the rise and fall of a scumbag during the period of ‘80s excess, this is an OK one. It coasts mostly on Cruise’s considerable charm, but unfortunately, he isn’t given much of a character to work with. Cruise is never not fun to watch. It’s just that the amoral character has very little redeeming quality about him. Cruise’s constant grinning from ear to ear with his trademark Cheshire cat smile can only get the character so far.
It doesn’t help that the supporting players are even more thinly sketched. Wright looks great, but she is never given anything more to do than just than to just be “the wife”. Domhnall Gleeson has some good moments as Seal’s slimy handler, although he’s really just more of the personification of “The Man” than a flesh and blood human. Caleb Landry Jones is annoying as Seal’s fuck-up brother in-law, who’s mostly just there to complicate the situation.
Liman hits all the marks you’d expect from a story of ‘80s greed. However, the film is curiously lacking the emotional connection necessary to make you feel the rush of the highs and lows the characters experience. Without that connection, it’s just a slick but empty morality play.
AKA: Barry Seal: Only in America.
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