Superbly stylish thriller

Rating: Null/10 (25 September 2004)

This is a superbly stylish thriller from the director who gave us "Heat". Like that earlier movie, this is set in Los Angeles - but this time the action takes place in a single night - and the city itself is a player with brilliantly atmospheric aerial shots of the slumbering metropolis. A professional hit-man, identified only as Vincent (Tom Cruise), flies into town to execute five contract killings in rapid order. From the beginning, things go awry, but Vincent seems to almost relish the challenge of the need to improvise and adapt. The driver of the immaculately clean cab that he chooses for his errands - Jamie Foxx as Max - is horrified by the whole nightmare which is a million miles away from his quiet - but never to be fulfilled - plans to establish a luxury limousine company. To survive, he too will have to improvise in a manner which he never thought possible.
Cruise has always been a charismatic star who carries a movie but, especially when he plays an unsympathetic character as in "Born In The Fourth Of July", "Magnolia" and here in "Collateral", the guy really can act and he gives a compelling performance as the sharp-suited, grey-haired jazz aficionado who can kill with fast and furious efficiency. Foxx is excellent in a role which demands major transformation, but I would like to have seen more of Jada Pinkett Smith, a lawyer whose appearances frame the action. The script by Australian Stuart Beattie is sharp and at different times philosophic or amusing. The ending, while neat, could have been stronger, but overall this is superior fare with a sequence in a crowded nightclub proving particularly taut.