It would be tempting to simplify Collateral by saying there is a good guy (Max, played by Jamie Foxx), a bad guy (Vincent, played by Tom Cruise), a token girl named Annie (Jada Pinkett-Smith), and a pair of investigating cops (Mark Ruffalo and Peter Berg), whose lives intersect one dark night. But such a generalization would rob the film of its attention to detail and the clever ways it takes a straight-forward idea and creates ways for it to unfold that seem genuine and authentic. It only uses familiar set-ups as a starting point, and then it really takes off from there.
Foxx is Max, a taxi driver who deludes himself into thinking his job is temporary, even though he's had it for twelve years. After a beautiful customer offers interesting conversation and a pleasant fare (Pinkett-Smith), he picks up his next passenger, Vincent, unaware the gray-suited ruffian is a deadly hitman in sheep's clothing. Their first stop ends in a body crashing through Max's car, and Vincent feigns a smug answer to the incident; he tells Max it was his bullets that did the killing, not the impact of the fall from the window.
The pair travel to each assignment with Max as hostage, trying to find ways to circumvent his extraordinary circumstances. When Vincent catches wind that Max visits his ailing mother (Irma P. Hall) on a nightly basis, they go to the hospital to see her in a scene that works on a number of levels of intensity. After a skirmish leaves Vincent without the write-ups to his targets, Max must step in and impersonate the contract killer in order to keep Vincent's anonymity. It leads to another riveting sequence with colourful dialogue. Meanwhile, as the cops get closer to the scent, the movie reverts to less talk and more action, but there is always a lot of style and ingenuity beneath Michael Mann's direction. Chases and gun fights ensue, as we see Max transition from reluctant participant in a series of shady events, to a smart, albeit reluctant, action hero.
The performance here by Jamie Foxx is an immediate and welcome surprise. His approach to the character, emotionally intuitive and three-dimensional, makes us believe that Max isn't just any old cab driver. If Foxx had opted to incorporate a more casual dialect to the role, much of the weight of the movie would have fallen out from under him. His back-to-the-wall reactions make him more universal, likeable, and easy to relate to. As always, Tom Cruise is solid, here in a dark role that features enough gray and white hair to perhaps risk alienating his fans. His calm and collected detachment strike a great contrast between being reprehensible and repellently alluring, which is what all great screen villains aspire to be.
Of irritant matters which merit mention, there is the commercial matter of the taxi cab that is predominantly sponsored by Silver Bacardi. There are several shots in the movie comprised solely of the hood of the car and the Silver Bacardi logo, which features a triangular advertisement that represents product placement at its all-time worst. One might expect this kind of blatant plugging in an Austin Powers comedy, but not a Michael Mann film. In a lesser summertime offering, one of the characters would likely end up grabbing a Bacardi bottle and bashing it over the head of someone else, if only because the incessant placement would qualify for being written into the script as an important plot point. There is also the matter of a few too many coincidences, which get heavier and heavier as we go. Two characters cross paths on escalators, two more cross paths on an elevator, and then there is a gigantic twist that is telegraphed almost for the sake of betraying all of the solid work that has preceded it. And, no matter how fit an actor Tom Cruise may be, somehow I doubt his ability to descend at least 15 flights of stairs in approximately 20 seconds.
Fortunately, by the third act Collateral has earned some leeway in regards its lackluster dénouement, and the action is taut enough for such contrivances to be overlooked. This is primarily a showcase for top-tier acting and crisp writing by Stuart Beattie. In fact, much of the drama would work quite well if it were ever transformed into a stage play. While not entirely cerebral through and through, it's smarter than most mono e. mono features, especially in the way it keeps changing directions at every turn. In a year of big-budget disappointments, Collateral delivers as a dramatic action vehicle and sets the stage for Foxx's next turn as Ray Charles this fall in the now-far-more-anticipated bio-flick, Ray.
