Tom Cruise + Michael Mann = a tepid thriller

Rating: 5/10 (29 April 2006)

Max (Jamie Foxx) is a taxi driver in Los Angeles and works mainly at night. It's a nine to five work reversed as far as the time is concerned. A humdrum life which he dreams of escaping. One night, after he took a lovely black lawyer, he accepts the alluring offering of 600 dollars from a weird, cynical customer, Vincent (Tom Cruise) to go and stop at five different places where he has meetings. But during the first one, a corpse falls on Max's cab and reveals him the true nature of his customer. He's a serial killer and the taxi driver has no other choice than to obey him.
Public made an ovation to this "Collateral" in September 2004 and users on this site seem to like this movie very much. I have mixed feelings about this thriller made Michael Mann who is certainly an American director to remember with works like "Heat" (1995) or "the Insider" (1999). It's true that it's suspenseful as one could wish and there are twists, a good dose of fighting, shooting sequences in store to keep the aficionados of the thriller happy. The backdrop, Los Angeles at night adds to the unsettling aura the film tries to convey. Besides the fans of the film would rejoice more if they could watch it all lights turned off. Mann is also certainly a technical virtuoso with prime camera work. So what could possibly go wrong?
Well several drawbacks. First the choice of Tom Cruise. In spite of his commendable efforts to try to convince the audience that he can act a cast against type role (here a serial killer) with gray hair to show that he has grown up, it doesn't really work. Several actors had contemplated to do the same thing, that is to say to get out of their ordinary roles commonly attributed to them. Some have succeeded like Brad Pitt in "Fight Club" (1999) or Jeff Daniels in Clint Eastwood's "Blood Work" (2002) but other failed like Robin Williams in Christopher Nolan's "Insomnia" (2002). Cruise definitely enters this second category. He's also almost totally bland but his partner Jamie Foxx is better than him. And the film goes unravel because of some sequences in the taxi. In these moments, Cruise explains to Foxx his motivations for his actions and what he learns from these lessons. In short, the scenarist inserted dialogs that were supposed to be "deep" and "meaningful" but I don't find them truly convincing. And some of his traits is exaggerated. As Max says: "did you have to kill this cop who was married with children?" And when the story starts to stagnate, Mann boosts the interest again with far-fetched tricks. It's better illustrated in the sequence when Foxx starts to speed up and they have a car crash. Cruise absconds to fulfill his last contract. Max, meanwhile discovers the identity of this last person and... I'd better stop here but I think the end of Max's nightmare smells the reheated and doesn't really redeem Mann's work. His film is also marred by unlikeliness.
Does "Collateral" does the job it was made for? Yes but that's all. If you're not too demanding and if you have time to kill on an evening in front of the telly, this might be your cup of tea. Otherwise, pass by.