American Made Review - They Would Have Struggled to Make This Story Not Interesting

Since Magnolia, Tom Cruise hasn't stepped outside of his wheelhouse of characterisation too much, save for a Tropic Thunder here or there. As conniving airline pilot/CIA spy/drug runner Barry Seal, the demented little space zealot retains his usual effortless charisma whilst playing around with an accent and an extremely watchable shiftiness as he desperately tries to juggle his many crimes and duties with conflicting group. It would have been nice if Cruise could have adopted a paunch or beer belly to play the tubby real life figure, but presumably he couldn't rock up to MI:6 like that. They've already had enough issues with Henry Cavill's moustache.

Sarah Wright fairs okay as the typical 'wife-of-a-crook' in a rise and fall of an anti-hero narrative (see some Scorsese spouses), but never really makes much of an impression. The increasingly (and justly) popular Domhnall Gleeson does as Barry's handler; he's warmly calculating, and then suddenly he's coldly aloof as shit hits the Areostar propeller. A late gag involving his character's work post-Seal is played just for laughs, but it does highlight the fact that this true story is somewhat embellished.

But then again...who cares? The broad facts are there, and the sheer insanity of the broad story translates well in scenes where Barry casually gets away with multiple transgressions and inadvertently finds himself at the heart of all of the major political events of the early 80s. How better for Doug Liman to match the casual nonsense going on by applying handheld camerawork and bump zooms for an almost deliberately chaotic and amateurish style. Admittedly, the film does take a trip as it steps up into darker territory, but the colourful madness that came before is still wonderful.

FOUR STARS. Seriously why not just use a prosthetic belly and sacrifice those shirtless digging shots? The man weighed 280 pounds and Tom Cruise looks like an ageless Demi-God.