Well it was good, but it wasn't what I wanted for an ending

Rating: 7/10 (15 January 2005)

I loved the way this film looked. In parts it really looked like a fly on the wall documentary where you were actually there apart of the chaos of Max's life. If Jamie Foxx needed a film before Ray to prove his ability as an actor then Collateral is his defining moment. Cruise is excellent as always but is playing a character which has been done before with Cruise adding a few new elements to the character. Michael' Mann's direction is gritty and full of suspense with jump shots and quick cuts but when the film finally ended I felt let down to the ending. It reminded me o a certain ending from a previous Michael Mann film, not saying which one.
Max is a cab driver with dreams of running a limousine company. He does nights and meets friendly and not so friendly people on the way. One night he meets a passenger which he wishes he didn't. That person is Vincent who is asking for a drive like no other Max has taken before. After general chit chat Vincent asks Max to take him to five different places so he can get a contract signed. What he doesn't know is that Vincent is the one who has signed a contract to kill five people in each different five places, much to Max's dismay he finds himself in the middle of a nightmare which he finding hard to get out of. There is a great flow of dialogue between the two leads and each scene is relevant to the story and doesn't get boring at all. After a while the story comes together and everything about the film is looking great till the end comes which is not a bad one but is not the great one I was hoping for. Michael Mann is a great director and has made some classic films but he is not taking his new film to new depths, it just feels like the end scene is a carbon copy. The scene may be different but the tone of atmosphere isn't. In most peoples eyes the ending is satisfactory to them but the ending for me made me go back and think less of the entire film all together. Although the film has great moments, these moments are building up throughout every scene and to put up with the end we have been given is not good enough for me.
There are many questions about Max that aren't even answered at the end of the film. Throughout the story many things occur in Max's one night of hell and there is no conclusion to where he goes from here at the end, fro example when everyone believes he is the assassin as Vincent is making him pose as him in one or two parts of the film and the ones who know the truth, end up dead leaving everyone else to still believe Max is Vincent, we never see how he gets out of that. I suppose you can say "well I'm sure the cops figured it out at the end", as I am sure they did, but with film finishing under 2 hours it wouldn't have gone a miss to see Max prove his innocence.
Excellent performances all round and Michael Mann's direction never fails, but what does fail is the story which builds you up for a great finale which is what you get but not exactly the way you had hoped, for me anyway.