Collateral
8.6.2004
It started like any other night
Director: Michael Mann
Collateral offers a change of pace for Tom
Cruise as a ruthless contract killer, but that's just
one of many reasons to recommend this well-crafted
thriller. It's from Michael Mann, after all, and the
director's stellar track record with crime thrillers
(Thief, Manhunter, and especially
Heat) guarantees a rich combination of
intelligent plotting, well-drawn characters, and
escalating tension, beginning here when icy hit-man
Vincent (Cruise) recruits cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx)
to drive him through a nocturnal tour of Los Angeles,
during which he will execute five people in a 10-hour
spree. While Stuart Beattie's screenplay deftly
combines intimate character study with raw bursts of
action (in keeping with Mann's directorial
trademark), Foxx does the best work of his career to
date (between his excellent performance in
Ali and his title-role showcase in
Ray), and Cruise is fiercely convincing as
an ultra-disciplined sociopath. Jada Pinkett-Smith
rises above the limitations of a supporting role, and
Mann directs with the confidence of a master, turning
L.A. into a third major character (much as it was in
the Mann-produced TV series Robbery Homicide
Division). Collateral is a bit slow at
first, but as it develops subtle themes of elusive
dreams and lives on the edge, it shifts into
overdrive and races, with breathtaking precision,
toward a nail-biting climax. --Jeff Shannon
