The Moose Hole - Review of Collateral

Rating: 8/10 (6 August 2004)

`O' Oscar, Where Art Thou?' is a phrase that Hollywood super-star Tom Cruise has become all too familiar with, especially as of late. Ever since his break out in Risky Business, a film, as good as it may be, is hardly Oscar material, Cruise has made numerous attempts to take home the golden statuette by taking on roles in such high-profile dramas as Born on the Fourth of July, A Few Good Men, Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky, and Magnolia, only to come up nearly empty handed (he received Best Actor nominations for his roles in Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, and Magnolia). But his last two films (Minority Report and The Last Samurai), quite possibly the best chances at an Oscar nod in years based on critical as well as public acceptance, failed to produce even a nomination. Does this affect his career, let alone his own self-esteem for his craft? Hardly! Cruise continues to take risks as an actor, which includes performing in a role that doesn't suite his personality: the villain.
The story centers on an ordinary man living in the big city just trying to make a decent living as a cab driver until one day he picks up the wrong guy at the wrong time and becomes embroiled in a situation he never could have imagined. For twelve years Max has been a cab driver in the city of Los Angles, a position that he envisioned would only be temporary until he saved up enough money to start his own limo service, one that would be like a `club experience', but some things in life don't always work out the way we envision them. Take for instance, one night Max picks up a man named Vincent, a person who one would describe as well put together, who `hires' him to drive him around to five locations that night for double the amount of money he would normally make in a single night. Max, believing him to be a decent hardworking guy, agrees to the deal only to shockingly discover that his occupant is actually a contract killer sent by a narco-trafficking cartel to eliminate five individuals, both witnesses and prosecutors, involved in a federal grand jury trial set to take place the next day. Though Max tries everything in his capacity, which, at times, can be quite limited, to escape, Vincent forces him at gun-point to drive him around to each location. As the increasingly distressing night drags on, Vincent and Max become more dependent on each other and begin to reveal within themselves aspects of life they never once considered before  aspects that will change the course of their own lives forever. The story for Collateral is not all that complex and, in a sense, remains fairly predictable from beginning to end but the way Michael Mann successfully blends an intoxicating atmosphere with sympathetic characters and brilliantly choreographed action sequences, that feel neither drawn-out nor short-lived, that make it the most fascinating storylines this season.
One of the most striking aspects about the film is the way the filmmakers allow a small group of performers to carry the entire feature without missing a beat. Though several background characters are brought in and out throughout the film's two hour time length, they are, in essence, meaningless to the audience as many of the main actions occurring on screen primarily affect the relationship between Vincent and Max, played brilliantly by Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. Tom Cruise, who is better known on the big screen for playing the hero rather then the villain, could have been disastrous had he ended up like most actors who break their usual mold, but he demonstrates that he's just as good, or even better, being bad. The grey-haired, clean-cut Vincent may seem intelligent and even debonairish in certain respects, which makes the character all the more enticing, much in the same way Anthony Hopkins portrayed Hannibal Lecter  a person so interesting and majestic that you can't help but root for him at times, though in your heart you know should be hating his guts. The other reason the character works so well is the way his acts and reacts with the character of Max the cab driver, played by Jamie Foxx. The film starts off with Max as the weak-willed, cautious pawn in the grand master-plan that he can't control, but as time goes on and their conversations become more and more profound, his personality changes in such dramatic fashion that it snaps the audience's moral compass back in line by having them root for the man they should be interested in from the beginning.
Overall, Collateral started like any other film and could have ended up the disaster it should have been (based on the clear-cut final sequence it finished with) but its impressive cast, tense atmosphere, brutal violence, and, more importantly, its austere message make this film the sleeper hit of the summer. The ending is not disappointing in the sense that is flat or uninteresting but rather that if one figures out early on that Jada Pinkett-Smith's appearance in the film is more then just a mere cameo (if you caught the appearances on the late-night talk shows, this should be a given to you), the way the film wraps-up isn't all that surprising. But this hardly deters the audience from having an enjoyable experience none the less. The aspect, one that literary wizards will adore, that sets Collateral apart from other thrillers is the Richard III-ish affect it has on the reactions of the audience. Early on, we should be hating Vincent, a man who viciously kills people without any second thought, but the character is ten times more interesting then Max, who comes off as a cautious neat-freak rather then a hero, that we are easily attracted to him and, dare it be said, root for him even though we know deep inside that we should be loathing his actions. Only when the real hero emerges in Max and he finally begins to escape the precarious shell he has kept himself in do we begin to shift our attention to the person that deserves it the most. Collateral's message, one that is hammered further and further into the minds of movie-goers as the story unfolds, that life should be lived to its fullest and one should take advantage of every minute of every day. This may sound simple and even clichéd but once you've seen this film, it's easier to understand and therefore take to heart once you've exit the theater.