Collateral goes farther than the conventional thriller.

Rating: 8/10 (8 April 2006)

It's great to see an action thriller that has more to it than shootouts and chase scenes. There's seldom an action movie that has a story to tell aside from what it takes to set up the plot and amp up the suspense. Luckily, there's Michael Mann's movies to look forward to. His action films overachieve to the point that, after we see his name attached to the title, we expect a drama instead of a thriller. So it's no surprise that Collateral pushes far away from the action genre and becomes a character driven drama.
The story revolves around two men. Max, an aspiring cab driver finishing his shift and ready to go home, and Vincent, a mysterious assassin who becomes Max's last fare of the night. At first glance, the premise of an assassin going around killing targets before the night's over sounds like the kind of mindless thriller normally released in the summer. That's exactly what Collateral could of been, but because of Mann's expert direction and the performances of his two leads, it comes off as a deep study of two different men instead of a two dimensional thriller.
As Vincent, Tom Cruise gives one of those against-type performances that makes you wish he played the villain more often. He makes Vincent more than just a cold-hearted killer with a gun. There are scenes that suggest his regret for pulling the trigger and we can sense that he kills out of necessity rather than enjoyment. Mann is the best when it comes to presenting characters whose lives are overtaken by their professions. Cruise gives an intense and concentrated performance.
Foxx is equally convincing as the subdued and passive Max. Along with Cruise, he plays against his usual kind of character dropping his comedic side and revealing that he can play dramatic scenes with intensity.
The movie spends a lot of time in Max's cab. In these scenes, Max and Vincent are never presented as straight forward good and bad. Both men have flaws and neither can really be called hero and villain. Normally in action thrillers, we know exactly who to call good and bad, but if we got to know the two sides we'd find that both of them are basically the same. Collateral is the first thriller in a long time to consider such a true to life aspect and use it to create such real characters.
Collateral is why Michael Mann is one of my favorite filmmakers. He's not interested in just giving us shootouts and chase scenes. He wants to make sure that the people doing the shooting and the chasing are worth caring about. With Collateral, he gives us a thriller that doesn't just thrill because of what the characters do, it thrills because of who the characters are.