Directed by: Michael Mann
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg, Barry Shabaka Henley, Irma P. Hall
Collateral isn't just an atmospheric noir thriller about a contract killer forcing a meek cab driver to chauffeur him to perform the hits he was hired to execute. It is also about how the cab driver is transformed from a dreamer into a man of action, all while being held hostage. The cab driver, Max (Foxx) is a different person at the end of a long Los Angeles night than he was before he had the misfortune of picking up Vincent (Cruise), who we learn soon enough isn't a slick businessman, but a hit man. Collateral becomes a story about how no one can help Max out of his dilemma but himself.
Vincent is disarmingly friendly. He chats with Max, learns about his desire to own his own limousine service, and asks him to make an innocuous stop at an apartment complex and wait for him in the back alley. Moments later, a body riddled with bullets falls from the sky onto the cab's windshield courtesy of Vincent and Max quickly understands the gravity of the situation. Max's first fare right before Vincent was Annie (Smith), an attorney working a high-profile case against a drug dealer. She and Max like each other, and she gives Max her card before she leaves the cab. How and why she is relevant to the story is made clear later on, and this is the spark which ignites Max.
Vincent is able to somehow compartmentalize his work from himself: "I didn't kill him, he fell, the bullets killed him," He approaches his job with cool detachment and efficiency. Max begs to be let go, and Vincent cruelly dangles that carrot in front of him before pulling it away. This was the first film in which Cruise has played a full-on villain, and he is very good at it. Watch the scene where he toys with another victim, a jazz club owner who once played with Miles Davis. Vincent loves jazz, and may even lean towards sparing the guy, or is he just cruelly playing with the man's emotions like a fiddle?
Before Collateral and his Oscar-winning role in Ray (2004), Jamie Foxx appeared in bawdy comedies, but made an impact in Michael Mann's Ali (2001) as a dramatic actor. He was the ideal choice to play the tentative Max, who dreams big but is sidetracked by life into making his dreams a reality. He finds he can't dream himself away from Vincent, he must think and act his way out of his dilemma. An undercover police officer who discovers the first murder (Ruffalo) links this to his working theory that Vincent has also kidnapped other cabbies in other cities to drive him around only to dispose of them at the end. Will the cop be able to save Max?
A lot of Collateral takes place inside Max's cab, with Vincent verbally jabbing at Max's inaction about starting his own business and whether or not to call Annie. Vincent underestimates Max, until a critical and satisfying point in the film where he learns he can't take Max lightly anymore. Max sizes up Vincent as a sociopath who "lacks standard parts that are supposed to be there in most people," To be a contract killer, that needs to be the case, as Vincent points out as he removes himself from the moral implications of his job because to him, nothing is personal.
Collateral works so efficiently and so well because of the unforced chemistry between Foxx and Cruise, and the eerie presentation of Los Angeles. A few miles away, stars are born in Hollywood. Riches and the good life are there for the taking, but we also witness the underbelly of the city beneath the glamour. Max drives people because he is stuck in his life. It is odd karma that Vincent, who has no plans to let Max live at the end of the night, is the catalyst for Max to spring into action at long last.
No comments:
Post a Comment