Collateral
dir. Michael Mann

I haven't updated this blog in a long time. Since my last post I have, of course, seen quite a few movies. Collateral was certainly one of the best I've seen in theatres these past few months--and with time, it has only grown in terms of quality in my mind. It's a simple, pacy bit of neo-noir from Mann, a far cry from the more sweeping and weighty Ali, The Insider and Heat. A hitman on business gets into a cab: complications develop as the cabbie realizes what's going on. It's a simple little concept movie that succeeds so beautifully because of the two lead characters.


As hitman Vincent, Tom Cruise is at the top of his game. Clipped and controlled, Vincent is like an unstoppable locomotive: with a single goal in his sights, we never doubt his unwavering conviction to achieving what he's set out to do. Cruise is utterly convincing, building up Vincent's cool, amoral persona in the beginning of the film and slowly, ever so subtly drawing out the human character underneath through his interaction with the cabbie, Max. It's easily the best Cruise has been since 1999's Magnolia, proving he can still be truly impressive in a traditional marquee role.


Jamie Foxx, usually quite a showy and attention-grabbing personality onscreen (who was also magnificent in Mann's Ali) has the much more difficult role of Max: while Vincent is all cool, prowling and lurking in the dark sheen of Los Angeles like a coyote, Max is subdued, shy and withdrawn. The script is at pains to point out the mundanity of Max's life as the film begins: he can predict the time of taxi journeys almost to the second, and his insistence that his 12-year shift behind the wheel of a cab is 'only temporary' doesn't even convince himself anymore. As he challenges and stands up to Vincent, however, Max's long-dormant personality asserts itself and Foxx is well up to the challenge of making this believable. He's better in the scenes with Cruise (the two make very good foils for each other) and this is perhaps why the movie slightly drags in the finale as the two are thrown apart, but it's nonetheless another strong performance from a rising star.


The look of Collateral also cannot be ignored. The digital photography lends nighttime LA a quite suitibly haunting feel, making it a crisply modern underworld. The action is mostly brief, effective and realistic--Vincent's total detachment from the clinical murders he committs proving both shocking and quite exilherating. The extended set-piece in a busy nightclub is one of the most kinetic and exciting scenes of the year--the more convoluted finale certainly has its moments but runs slightly out of steam. Complaints about plot are almost irrelevant with such a high-concept film: Collateral is not meant to register that high on the realism scales. It functions extremely effectively as an intense thriller, but also as a wonderful little character study with two fascinating lead performances that gain only more layers with re-viewings. Another triumph for Mann.

**** 1/2