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ReelThoughts: "When a Monster Makes Art"
11 January 2012, 9:44 pm

Simple question: Can you watch a movie without considering the personalities of those who made it?

Tom Cruise hasn't committed any infractions on the scale of Gibson's, but he has done things to rub people the wrong way. At one point, Cruise was just an incredibly good looking guy whose winning smile and sex appeal could pack a movie theater. That was back in the heady days of Top Gun and Cocktail. Now, in some circles, he's better known for jumping on couches, preaching Scientology, and damning psychology. His antics have turned some people off, although there are others who probably don't care. But more than one person I know say they simply cannot watch a Tom Cruise movie anymore because his grotesque off-screen personality overwhelms whatever character he attempts to play. That's a fair assessment to a degree: accepting a character demands that the actor vanish. If we look at the screen and see only Mel Gibson or Tom Cruise, they have failed the first requirement of acting. And if their off-screen reputations have become so bloated and discordant, the potential exists that the necessary level of immersion cannot be achieved.