intriguing premise falls apart

Rating: 6/10 (17 November 2006)

Michael Mann's 'Collateral' has lots going for it including lush visuals and an atmosphere of a surreal-looking L.A. and its diverse topography.
A beguiling, cold-blooded assassin psychologically losing control while his counterpart, a mild cabbie, becomes emboldened- is an intriguing concept. Dialogue, acting, and pacing were all involving.
But it would be nice if there were a halfway plausible narrative. And that ending was telegraphed early on in the movie. Then a horde of coincidences and plot holes conspired to undermine it all.
SPOILERS AHEAD What are the chances that on a night a cabbie had two random fares in the largest city in the U.S., one would be an assassin and the other one of his targets?
It was ludicrous when victim #1 fell out of his 4th floor apartment. After all, what competent hit man would shoot his target right in front of an open window? (Yet Vincent, the hit man, is presumably the ultimate in the profession). Sure enough, the victim then goes splat right atop Max's cab- gee, what are the odds?
Later, Vincent decides to take time out for a friendly visit of Max's mother in the hospital- normal protocol for an assassin. Who should they meet in the elevator? Why the cop sniffing out their trail! Max then decides to run out of the room leaving poor Mama briefly with the conscienceless, amoral assassin Max had just seen murder five people (three targets plus two intruders).Well, Max and Mama weren't that close, anyway.
And how does a quaking cab driver convince a vicious drug overlord that he is really the hit man he's just hired? Because drug czars are really idiots, don't you know?
Vincent stresses that he be anonymous- yet what happens in the big night club shootout? While guns are blazing away, scores of people see Vincent hacking his way Terminator-style toward target #4, a big Korean with a large coterie of bodyguards. Amid all the chaos, the Korean never moves from his seat in the booth. He awaits his fate like a seal pup in front of a shark. I guess he was really into the music. And how does Vincent calmly walk by L.A. police and the Feds, into the street unchallenged after having just caused so much destruction? (He even plugs a cop on the way out).
Just prior to the night club shootout, there are police cars and helicopters tracking the taxi cab through crowded L.A. streets. A few minutes later, after the shootout, the streets are suddenly deserted. Huh? Oh I get it, that was a mood change.
After Max crashes the cab, Vincent's laptop is conveniently open revealing who target #5 is. Anyone could see in the foreshadowing at the beginning of the film, who that was going to be.
I probably could have forgiven the plot contrivances, if the denouement hadn't been so klutzy. We've got Max desperately trying to reach the damsel in distress on his cell phone, which is breaking up because the battery is low (only seen that one about a hundred times). And of course, Max finds a spot atop a parking structure which can still transmit a signal, which naturally gives him a view of our heroine's office in a federal building and also a view of the heroine and our assassin. Even though it's about 3 a.m. at this point in the movie, our heroine (the prosecuting attorney) is still getting prepared for her case that very morning (oh yeah). And our assassin takes no notice that there would be cameras all over a federal building. But that's OK because we've already noticed that our terminator is none too bright about details.
Why Vincent needs to whack the attorney is a puzzle in itself, since all the prosecution witnesses have been taken out. And why he takes time to locate the power source for the 16th floor and knock out the lights, who knows? He could have just walked in there and killed her, but no, at this point of the story, with the claustrophobic effect of the taxi cab ride over, we need to try and fabricate suspense. And when Vincent finally gets his gun trained on her, instead of drilling her quickly like the marksman he was with the other victims, he simply stands there for 5 or 6 seconds until our cabbie enters the scene, and they can have a couple lines of witty repartee.
Later, after jumping on the back of a moving subway train, (the back door is open, of course) our rivals move toward their final confrontation. Then we're supposed to believe that Max, who doesn't even know how to brandish a gun, accidentally kills Vincent with a miraculous shot through a window. Bravo, Max.
And of course, the last line in the film has Vincent muttering a repeated line of psychobabble he had made reference to earlier in a cab scene- to the effect that if a man is shot dead in a subway, will anybody notice? Well, not that hit-man anyway.
Since Mann had made it a big point in the film for Vincent to talk about man's insignificance in the universe, the movie would have had a much more impactive ending if there had been some sort of final psychological warfare staged between Vincent and Max. Perhaps Vincent could have finished off Annie, walked out and left us wondering what would have gone through Max's mind. Almost anything would have been better than the Hollywood clichéd ending that was presented here, and it's somewhat surprising that a director of Mann's stature and intelligence didn't give us one.
But, hey Mr. Cruise. You looked icy cool with that spiked silver-gray hair and matching suit. A hit man should always be stylin'.