Tom Cruise: All the World's a Stage author chronicles Cruise's film career, including his first role in "Endless Love" in 1981, his breakthrough in "Risky Business", and other popular films such as "Top Gun", "Jerry Maguire" and the "" films. He cites Cruise's role as "Frank Mackey" in the film "Magnolia" as one of his best performances. Johnstone also writes about Cruise's relationships with Mimi Rogers and Nicole Kidman, and the luxurious lifestyle maintained by Cruise and Kidman during their relationship. Johnstone puts Kidman in a sympathetic light regarding their 2001 divorce. The book discusses Cruise's relationship with Scientology, and controversy in the media, including his public
Tom Cruise and "The Last Samurai" can also be considered to be part of this formula. "Widescreenings" noted that for Tom Cruise's character Daniel Kaffee in "A Few Good Men", "[screenwriter] Aaron Sorkin interestingly takes the opposite approach of "Top Gun", where Cruise also starred as the protagonist. In "Top Gun", Cruise plays Mitchell who is a 'hot shot' military underachiever who makes mistakes because he is trying to outperform his late father. Where Maverick Mitchell needs to rein in the discipline, Daniel Kaffee needs to let it go, finally see what he can do." Sorkin and director Rob Reiner are praised