"Mission: Impossible – Fallout", the criticism: twilight and moving, great art

2018-07-12T21: 29: 56.712Z – Jerome Vermelin

This is the role of his life. During his impressive career, Tom Cruise embodied characters "thicker" than the agent Ethan Hunt. We think, among others, of T.J. Mackey, tortured bad guru of "Magnolia" by Paul Thomas Anderson. Or to Bill Harford, Stanley Kubrick's hungry husband of "Eyes Wide Shut". None, however, not even the "Top Gun" Maverick, so synthesizes the legend of one of the most elusive comedians of his generation. A charismatic star, whose carnivorous smile barely suffers from the weight of years. A guy notoriously addicted to adrenaline, who realizes himself his stunts, especially the craziest, giving cold sweats to his insurer. A secret man too, whose membership in a controversial organization is, in fact, not so far from the clandestine existence of his double fiction.

In 1996, Tom Cruise is 34 years old when Paramount offers him to hold the lead role of a first film, inspired by the famous TV series of the 1960s. He already has many successes to his badets and he has just launched his own production company to pilot his career independently of the good-will others. It is not a coincidence that he is involved in the choice of directors of the saga. His idea, initially, is to entrust each episode to a different author so that he affixes his paw. Brian De Palma, John Woo, JJ Abrams, Brad Bird … But off, everyone knows that the boss of "Mission: Impossible" is him.

In 2018, in his 50s, Tom Cruise is more than ever launched in a crazy race. Against the bad guys who want to blow up the planet. Against the time that threatens his eternal youth. Against those who would not bow to his vision of the saga. In full filming of the fourth part, he had entrusted the rewriting to Christopher McQuarrie, the author of the screenplay Oscarized "Usual Suspects". Since then, these two never leave each other. Their motto? Always more beautiful, always bigger. Always more crazy. If "Rogue Nation" was a firework, then "Fallout" is a symphony.

It all starts with a dream, which turns into a nightmare. On a corner of paradise, Ethan and his wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) renew their vows under the mischievous eye of a priest who is actually Soloman Lane (Sean Harris), the nasty schizo of the previous episode. When our favorite secret agent awakes with a start, we are in an old barracks in Belfast where he receives his new mission order. On the trail of John Lark, the mysterious sponsor of the kidnapping of a nuclear weapons expert, he finds in Benji Benji (Simon Pegg), his favorite geek, and Luther (Ving Rhames), the old accomplice whom he saves. skin by making a terrible mistake …

Nice, we do not tell you exactly what it's all about. If not that the small band of the MFI will have to go to Paris to intercept Lark during a meeting at the top with the White Widow, an intermediary as formidable as bady … As every episode of the franchise "Fallout" chain of twists, betrayals, tricks and stunning sequences. But this sixth part differs from the previous ones in more than one way. And always for the best, as if the Tom Cruise on the precipice of his previous films – randomly "The Mummy"? – miraculously fell on his feet each time he puts on his favorite costume. And it's not just a metaphor.

First, there's something moving about how the star uses her own aging to serve her character. The new boss of the CIA (Angela Bbadett) judging Ethan Hunt now too tender, and indeed less reliable than before, she affuble indeed a cerberus larger, younger, more virile also in the person of August Walker mustached playboy, played by Henry Cavill, Superman of Zack Snyder's bodybuilder blockbusters. To get rid of it, Papy Cruise will have to redouble efforts – and ingenuity. Especially when you accuse him, wrongly, of being the double agent that everyone is looking for.

The action scenes, as breathtaking as always, also exploit the new flaws of the hero. Even when he scours Paris on a motorbike, the national police on his heels, and although he manages to cross the Place de l'Etoile in the opposite direction, he is less precise, less lucid, just less alert than before. And as soon as he has to pursue the villain of the film running on the rooftops of London, he is quickly left behind, sighing at the idea of ​​making a somersault in front of the residents eager for an open space at altitude. Christopher McQuarrie also seems to have kept at least one shot of the failed reception during which his star broke his ankle during filming in the British capital, forcing him to suspend filming for several weeks.

S 'he finds colors in a last dantesque act, Cruise / Hunt also has sores to the soul. Like the actor, the hero has had some ups and downs in private. Because of his life choices. Of his complicated reputation also without doubt. Since separating from Katie Holmes, the mother of his daughter Suri, Tom no longer has a girlfriend and family life. Like him perhaps, Ethan is afraid to engage with Ilsa (the divine Rebecca Ferguson), the beautiful English spy who gave him dizzy in the last episode. It must be said that he still feels guilty of having abandoned Julia, his wife, because of his busy schedule. And when a little news has an effect on him, he procrastinates and lets her take the first step. Without hugging or the next day

"Mission: Impossible – Fallout" savored as a portrait of his main actor, known to all and yet so far from ordinary mortals. But above all, it's a range of entertainment that finds its singularity, with a little humor and color in favor of a new gravity and intimidating darkness, underlined by Lorne Balfe's roaring BO. Throughout the film, splendidly highlighted by the chief operator Rob Hardy, there reigns a badroach atmosphere, uncertain as a parachute jumping in the storm above the canopy of the Grand Palais, transformed into the last dancefloor before the apocalypse . The thinnings, like those ephemeral reunions between Ethan and Ilsa in the gardens of the Royal Palace, are all the more tasty.

Finally if the plot was thought before the election of the current resident of the White House , like a political series such as the controversial "Homeland", it paints a portrait of an American administration gangrened from the inside, leaving almost no place for the idealists with the big heart that represent Ethan Hunt and his people. 22 years after losing all members of his team in the first film, this great loner has never been so surrounded. Is he planning to hand over to one (or any) of his playmates? As late as possible then …

>> "Mission: Impossible – Fallout" by Christopher McQuarrie. With Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg … Duration: 2h24. In theaters on August 1st.

Jérôme Vermelin

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