Gifted filmmaker strikes gold yet again

Rating: 9/10 (26 February 2005)

Collateral was one of the big noise blockbusters I missed last year, so I lapped up the opportunity to attend a matinée screening. My comments shall briefly echo the majority of those before me, in singing the praises of this joyously crafted masterclass in post-noir cinema. Michael Mann, he of "Miami Vice" origin, has accumulated quite a resume of taut, introspective thrillers in the 90's with "The Last of the Mohicans", "The Insider", and the seminal "Heat" as his defining moments. Collateral in many ways bears much resemblance to this latter work, with Mann's sweeping, neon-drenched cinematography again purporting the vibrancy and mythical qualities of Los Angeles whilst surrounding an unconventionally explored tale of good vs evil, and the increasingly blurred line on which they tread. Certain elements of its final confrontation also recall Heat's outstanding Pacino-DeNiro face-off finale, although this time the audience has more idea who they're rooting for.
As hit-man Vincent, Tom Cruise shows off a perfectly satisfactory yet previously unexplored flair for villainy - he is ruthless, dangerous, and darkly reflective of the nature of his work. His low-key intensity carries a near-perfect contrast and sizzling chemistry with the psychological frailties of his co-star, a certain Jamie Foxx. Already launched into the critical stratosphere for his performance in Ray - for which he will in all likelihood receive the Oscar tomorrow night - here Foxx is given the opportunity to create his own character, and does he ever. He perfectly conveys the twitchy, downtrodden confusion of a man at breaking point from failure to follow his idle dreams, suddenly thrust into a violent world of seemingly random murders and dubiously moral retribution. Personally, I'd enjoy seeing him receive the supporting actor Oscar for this and allowing Leo DiCaprio best actor for The Aviator (a scenario currently hanging by a mere thread of possibility).
By now you most likely know all about the plot of ruthless hit-man commandeering taxi-cab across big city, but it's the sheer intricacies of the screenplay and direction itself which seemed to hit me with shattering impact. The entire opening sequence with Foxx and Jada Pinkett Smith, apart from its gentle romantics, was a pitch-perfect beginning to the film in allowing the density and tragedy of Foxx's character to be unearthed to the viewer, before the brutality of Cruise suddenly hurtles into his world. My personal favourite, though, would be towards the middle of the film, immediately following a bickering section between the uneasy acquaintances as they stop at traffic lights, and an Alsatian wanders across the road. It turns to face them briefly, its eyes caught in the cab's headlights, and trots off again. Everything about this brief moment, the camera slowing down, the way Foxx and Cruise both stare at the animal, is perfectly setup, and provides one of the most gently reflective moments in the whole film.
Mann, like Tony Scott, is one of a select few distinguished Hollywood directors who can adapt to contemporary settings and styles without making them seem obnoxiously exclusive for the 'short attention span' youth audience. He pulls off an LA nightclub setting with panache and flair, without cynically layering it in multiple split-second camera angles and excessively intrusive music so common in modern action blockbusters. Similarly, he retains his trademark tension throughout, with even his dialogue-focused sections (notably a superlative conversation about Miles Davis) brimming with the anything-could-happen factor that remains prevalent for the full two hours. Occasionally, this factor seems TOO prevalent - when Cruise is shot in the face, and then stands up again almost immediately, I half-expected a glimmer of titanium skeleton to flash from underneath the bloody organic tissue. (Indeed, occasionally Cruise's performance recalls Robert Patrick as the menacing T-1000 cyborg in Terminator 2!) Despite this and the employment of various supposed genre clichés - the "pairing of white-black" old chestnut, the "happy ending" of sorts - the terse atmosphere leaves you too entranced to really consider such trivialities. People who moan about plot holes and over-suspension of disbelief should be ignored anyway. It's cinema.
The film certainly serves what is expected of Mann, but it stands out amongst the increasing crowd of modern genre thrillers, taking pride in being as thoughtful as it is tense, as contemporary as it is classical, as violent as it is human, and as well acted as it is conceived. If its sporadic bleakness makes it occasionally difficult to watch, its tightness of structure as a narrative and the caliber of performance it extracts from its two leads more than compensate for such a discrepancy. Only The Bourne Supremacy has been anywhere near as impressive from last year, and that had its uneven moments. A discerning cinema-goer could do far worse than what is arguably the best of its kind from 2004.