Mann, what a crime! "Collateral" comes apart with wimpy, formulaic climax

Rating: 6/10 (9 August 2004)

[WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS]
After making one of the dullest biopics in recent memory, "Ali" (2001), director Michael Mann returns to his crime-drama roots in "Collateral," looking to rekindle some of the brilliance of his last thriller, "Heat" (1995).
Unfortunately, "Collateral" is no "Heat."
Despite an eye-opening dramatic turn by former stand-up comic, Jamie Foxx, "Collateral" promises much, but doesn't quite live up to its potential.
Mann's thrillers take time to unfold. He revels delving into aspects of characters' lives rarely, if ever, seen in the fast-paced world of Hollywood crime dramas. That's what made "Thief" (1981), "Manhunter" (1986) and "Heat" such good films.
His films also take place in a visually stylized urban milieu. Mann's films may be noirish, but his asphalt jungle is sleek, glossy; its inhabitants slick, urbane, even though some of them might very well be slimeballs. Here, Dion Beebe and Paul Cameron's striking cinematography makes nighttime Los Angeles look sexy.
The premise of "Collateral" is basic: Cabbie Max (Foxx) gets unwittingly engaged for the night by Vincent (Tom Cruise), a hit man with five targets in one night.
But "Collateral" feels like two disparate films.
On the one hand, there's the intriguing mind game between Vincent and Max. Their conversations are thoughtful and utterly convincing. They develop an almost morally uncomfortable intimacy. On the other hand, there's everything else in the film.
Mann's films usually give us interesting supporting characters we get to know well. That's not the case with "Collateral." There's one splendid supporting role - a jazz club owner played superbly by Barry Shabaka Henley, who was the best thing in Spielberg's "The Terminal," earlier this year.
But there aren't many moments like this in "Collateral." Instead, we get entirely forgettable supporting characters, including two police detectives, played by Mark Ruffalo and Peter Berg. They're worked into a superfluous subplot and given the film's most stilted dialogue. Excising them would have cost nothing.
"Collateral" begins promisingly. Before Vincent hops in the cab, Max picks up Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith). They flirt, talk about their lives, their dreams. The dialogue flows well, there's believable chemistry giving scene a pleasing rhythm.
Cruise and Foxx hold this film together. Villains always are more interesting than heroes and Cruise, playing against type, almost pulls off the killer without a conscience, someone Jeff Bailey might have referred to as "awfully cold around the heart." Foxx proves he's not to be pigeonholed as a comedian and turns in a surprisingly good performance.
Where this film fails miserably is in its plotting.
With most other filmmakers, we could anticipate who Vincent's final target will be. But since this is a Michael Mann film, we expect something different. And this is where he disappoints. He sticks rigidly to formula and gives us exactly the gutless denouement we'd expect to see in any other conventional thriller. Mann and writer Stuart Beattie create scenes that begin fascinatingly, but end hackneyed. There's a traffic stop that builds slowly and intensely, only to conclude with one of the most overused cinematic clichés.
Any sense of reality gets obliterated in the final act, starting with the Felix scene. And there's an unbelievable nightclub sequence that could only take place in the movies. Apparently in LA, people will continue dancing even if the person next to them has his neck snapped by an assassin and gunfire erupts in the club.
Then there's the ending, complete with a cell phone that's running out of power, a victim who waits too late to call 9-1-1 and the requisite foot chase. It seems so horribly tacked on, not what we expect from Mann. "Collateral" isn't necessarily bad. Given the talent involved, it's merely one of the huge disappointments of the year.