some classic Mann touches, but ultimately disappointing

Rating: Null/10 (23 September 2004)

Part of me was in love with this movie, so let's hear from that part first. Shot on DV, the movie has a wonderfully - and very purposefully - dated quality to it, despite being set (presumably) in modern day. It has Mann's signature all over in - a big pink 80s graffiti tag that covers the whole thing from start to finish - and he sets the scene of the 'real L.A' with a sure touch that leaves you hungry to see the place for yourself.
The film is one long, neon night-scene, skyscrapers forming the backdrop to every shot - most memorably as Tom Cruise stalks his final victim against a vast wallpaper of twinkling lights - and you sense Mann's love for this place in every second.
Deliciously, Tom Cruise plays very much against type, although Vincent's cool facade is not dissimilar to Cruise's suave, wise-cracking 80s persona. He's slick, smooth and smart, with a seemingly endless store of dry, sarcastic banter - but behind his jet-black shades his eyes are dead. As Jamie Foxx's character Max observes 'something that normal people have got, you're just...missing'. He's a plastic-Cruise, trying to fool his clients and victims into thinking he's wise to the world, when in fact he's the weakest kind of lonely outsider, and all it takes is a s***-scared, kamikaze cabbie to finally see through him.
The part of me that loves Michael Mann for bringing me 'Manhunter' and damaged, beautiful William Petersen, lapped up 'Heat' with a spoon and kissed his feet for giving Russell Crowe 'The Insider' - loves this movie, like I would love anything that paints character and place so vividly. But the part of me that celebrates originality and enjoys being surprised...that part is out at lunch. Considering why anyone would ruin such an otherwise great movie with such a contrived and laboured plot twist: 'OMG!!! He's going after the lawyer!!!!' No s***? Oh so that's what that otherwise completely pointless and overtly sentimental scene at the start was about?
Choosing the Hollywood ending over something that might have left me feeling as pained and hollow and empty as an L.A parking lot at midnight? In a word: lame. And in another - cowardly. I am disappointed in you Michael. And I might not go watch your next film. So there.