A minor masterpiece (spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (13 November 2005)

I have to say that I prefer Tom Cruise when he's playing a bastard. I suppose part of the reason why I feel that way is because in person he goes to such lengths to portray himself as a nice guy  he spends ages with fans at premiers, he leaps onto couches on chat shows and he has a million dollar grin forever plastered across his face. But under that façade you can sense something wrong about the man. He's too passionate, too energetic and too eager please. He always seems to be 'on'. You never get the feeling that you see the real person. But despite that, under the surface, you get the impression, what with all of his nonsense opinions and beliefs, that there's a definite dark side to him.
Vincent is certainly one of Cruise's darker characters. He's also one of the most interesting. Outwardly he's calm and in control but inwardly he's got a screw loose. Is this what Cruise is like in real life (without all hardcore violence, of course)? Possibly.
Cruise does an exceptional job of playing Vincent. At the beginning he's smooth and self-possessed; he's got an answer for everything. And even when his first hit goes wrong, he doesn't panic. In fact, he's almost like a robot (quite a few people have compared Vincent to The Terminator and the comparison is an accurate one). Everything he does is instinct. For instance, there's the way that he draws the gun on Max (Jamie Foxx) after the guy has landed on Max's cab. Vincent wouldn't hesitate in shooting him. It's just a necessary response to a certain situation. If Max remains a threat, he gets killed.
Another interesting detail regarding Vincent is the way that he disassociates himself from the violence. After he kills the first guy he says that it was the fall and the bullets that killed him. On the surface this may seem like a rather ironic attitude. But it could also hint that he has to distance himself from his acts in order to perform them. In other words, he's not as strong as he thinks.
A second example of this strange sort of vulnerability is when he kills the jazz player. For a couple of moments he holds the bloke's head, almost regretting what he's done. But then like a robot he clicks back into gear and gets on with things.
What I also like about Vincent are the little mind games he plays. There's the way that, when approached by some cops, he wonders whether they're married and have children  he's going to kill them if Max can't stop them from looking in the boot. And there's the way that Vincent makes up a story about his childhood. Just like Cruise you never get to know the man. There's only surface.
A more substantial character is Max, the unfortunate cabbie that picks Vincent up. He's a man who's bullied by his mother, who works a lousy job and who can only find refuge in a postcard. Yet despite this he has ambition and plans to start a business. But while this might suggest that he and Vincent are miles apart, they're not so dissimilar. For example, they're both control freaks  Vincent wants control of his night's business and Max wants control of his cab (he's pedantic about cleaning it and he knows how long each journey takes). Another similarity is that they're both liars  Vincent lies to Max and Max lies to his mother. And yet another thing they have in common is their resourcefulness  there's a great scene where Max successfully impersonates Vincent in a Mexican bar (Max may hate jazz, but he finally learns how to improvise).
But the effect of these similarities is that eventually each man sees through each other's crap. Vincent knows that Max's limo business is a pipedream. He also knows that Max is too much of a coward to phone the woman he meets at the start. But at the same time Max realises that Vincent isn't invulnerable. And he also knows that Vincent's sayings are clichés; empty words to perpetuate a false air of superiority. So it's a great scene when Max finally decides to stand up to Vincent by crashing his cab  Vincent tries pulling his gun on him but what power does a gun have when you no longer fear the repercussions? If anything Vincent has been too successful in breaking Max down. He's inadvertently forced Max to build himself back up into a stronger person.
But while the power plays in the film are superb, the film also works purely in terms of action. In fact, the action is the best I've seen in a long time  probably since Heat. The most obvious highlight is the nightclub shootout, but I actually prefer the scene with the muggers. It only lasts a couple of seconds, but the way in which Vincent draws and shoots (the speed and ferocity) is phenomenal (hats off to Cruise). And this skill is also demonstrated in the nightclub scene. There's a bit where Vincent loses his gun and has to grab it from the floor. It's just amazing how many rounds Cruise gets off in such a quick time. It's a million times more thrilling than all the empty Matrix-like posturing you get in most action films these days.
However, the film isn't flawless. It certainly falls a little short in the final act (it's just a bit too predictable). And in the moments in the attorney's building, Vincent finally does become The Terminator  the way he runs and lurks in the dark is eerily similar to the T-1000. But somehow with Mann behind the camera, he makes you overlook its shortcomings. He's just so good with mood and photography and performance that he elevates a relatively routine script into something of a minor masterpiece.