Collateral (2004)

COLLATERAL (2004)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Viewed on August 13th, 2004

RATING: Three stars

"Collateral" is a muted action thriller. It sweeps you along, it is occasionally exciting, but it has a consistently muted tone, in terms of sound, performance and direction. Yes, all film fans, director Michael Mann is back doing what he does best - evoking the hunters and gatherers of L.A. at night. There is a reason why a couple of coyotes show up in the film.

Set in L.A. at night, "Collateral" begins slowly as we are introduced to Max (Jamie Foxx), a taxi driver with aspirations of having his own limousine service in an unnamed island. His first fare is a federal prosecutor (Jada Pinkett Smith), who always tells herself she will lose a case the night before, even if she knows she will win it. Max has his own method of relieving his stress - he claims he's always on vacation by simply looking at the island postcard he keeps with him. After he drops her off, she offers her business card to him. This seems like a night better than most for Max until he picks up Vincent (Tom Cruise), who carries a briefcase and sports gray hair, gray stubble and a gray suit. This Vincent seems like an anonymous businessman. Vincent proposes to Max to drive him to several stops in exchange for $600 dollars. Max is reluctant at first but goes along with it, until their arrival at the first stop where a corpse lands on the roof of his taxicab! Max learns that Vincent had killed someone and threw them through their bedroom window. What we have here is a professional hitman who carries a laptop of all the assigned targets for the night. All Max can do is hope he can escape, but how do you escape from a cold-blooded killer who is a passenger in your cab?

Okay, so "Collateral" has a somewhat novel idea and it is hardly a run-of-the-mill action thriller. What action exists is mostly confined to the last 40 minutes of the film. What we have here is a noir tale of two protagonists who will keep you guessing as to their surprising motives and personalities. Max seems like a charming, smooth spoken guy who is changed by Vincent's rabid, impulsively violent behavior. He could run from this hitman but he is somehow lured into the lifestyle and Vincent's own philosophies (my favorite has to do with the correlation between the Rwanda massacre and the average L.A. murder). There is a comical, highly taut moment when Max is forced to see his mother (Irma P. Hall) in the hospital by Vincent. Max's mother spends more time conversing with Vincent than with her own son.

Vincent is certainly an enigma, a philosophical murderer who sees justification in everything he does. He explains he had a tough childhood but he implies that it doesn't account for his murder-for-hire status. It's a job and he does it well, and is precise as hell. Consider a jaw-dropping scene where Vincent visits a Miles Davis admirer and trumpeter (Barry Shabaka Henley) and both men share their mutual admiration for Miles Davis's godlike status among jazz legends (In fact, you'll probably learn more about Miles Davis in this film than in any documentary). I won't give away the surprise of that scene but it certainly illustrates how uncertain we can feel towards Vincent - can a killer really like jazz music and know so many facts about jazz legends? Like the rest of the film, it will keep you guessing.

"Collateral" is a cool ride into L.A., a film of cool colors and purplish night skies where the city seems more desolate than during the day. Thanks to director Michael Mann ("Thief," "Heat") and writer Stuart Beattie, we have another riveting entry in the crime world of thieves and general criminals. This is well-travelled territory for Mann, using his trademark telephoto lenses and hand-held approach better than most directors. Unlike "The Bourne Supremacy," Mann doesn't let the camera jerk around and swing with uncouth abandon - he knows exactly what to focus on and for how long. Not often mentioned is Mann's deliberately muted soundtrack, which makes scenes like the two coyotes running across the street truly breathless. Key moments of silence and soft voices on the soundtrack (which makes some dialogue scenes difficult to understand) underscore suspense and tension better than most films that rely on loud, pumped-up rap soundtracks and electronic sounds.

As for the actors, Cruise doesn't play the average generic hitman - there are a few layers to the character that make for a memorable performance (shorn of any of Cruise's wide grins). Jamie Foxx delivers a nuanced portrayal of a cab driver whose aspirations are withering away. Jada Pinkett Smith, in a brief but pivotal role, has the elegance and breathless beauty of an actress who will make you swoon (she's that good). A superb cameo by Javier Bardem ("Before Night Falls") as a Colombian drug lord makes for some of the most exquisite, restrained acting I've ever seen by anybody playing a drug lord.

There are some performances that don't function as well. Mark Ruffalo and Peter Berg play a pair of homicide detectives that simply mark time and don't contribute much to the character byplay between Cruise and Foxx. And extended scenes between FBI and the police department only dampen the narrative.

"Collateral" does aim for bigger scenes towards the finale, especially moments that break the reality barrier (including a car crash that would have been at home in a "Terminator" flick). I like the train footage, which is suspenseful and taut, which echoes "The French Connection." Scenes in an office building leave something to be desired, but you can't fault Mann for trying.

2004 will be remembered as the year of the dialogue-driven action thrillers. Consider "Kill Bill: Vol. 2," which has more dialogue in its 2-hour-plus running time than its predecessor. Also look at "Spider-Man 2," focusing with more depth on what makes Peter Parker a superhero than any web-crawling action scenes would. "Collateral" mostly extends scenes with dialogue, not action, and so we become involved in Vincent and Max in ways that a standard actioner wouldn't allow. Hurray to Michael Mann for making something quite unique these days - a thinking man's action movie.

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X-RT-RatingText: 3/4