On Tom Cruise at 46

Stephen Metcalf at Slate doesn't think middle age will be kind to Tom Cruise:

Cruise has that famous smile, of course, his boyish good trim, and a synthetic American normalcy that puts him over with audiences in Bhutan or Sri Lanka. Now think about what he lacks: humanitas, gravitas, carnality, whimsy—everything, in short, that might rise up to fill a midlife smile with feeling. Even premium Cruise, the A-game actorly actor of Born on the Fourth of July and Magnolia, who gears up a half-berserk lour when working with a directorly director, offers more of the same: bark, glare, seethe, repeat.

Not that I want to pile on, but I don't think I've ever seen a Tom Cruise movie where he didn't play the same character. "Bark, glare, seethe, repeat" - let's see, that about sums up Jerry Maguire, Charlie Babbit, Lt. Mitchell, Lt. Kaffee,...