Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx going mano e mano would seem, at least from an acting standpoint, the equivalent of English Premier League soccer power Manchester United taking on its cross-town rivals, Manchester City. In other words, a total and tragic mismatch. After all, Cruise is perhaps America's most popular actor and is backed up by widespread critical acclaim. Foxx, on the other hand, has a somewhat undistinguished career, mostly in comedy. However, with Cruise at his typical best and Foxx doing yeoman's work in keeping up, the two drive director Michael Mann's latest film, Collateral
to brilliant heights.
Foxx, playing taxi driver Max, is good at what he does but longs for something better in his life. Unfortunately for him, 12 years of working the night shift has made his dreams of owning his own limousine company little more than an empty possibility. His fare for the night? None other than Vincent (Cruise), in town on business. Vincent offers Max some extra money to stay with him for his five stops that evening. Max very early on is jarringly alerted to Vincent's profession: assassin for hire.
Just as in Mann's 1995 effort, Heat, which featured Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro squaring off on opposite sides of the law, the star of Collateral might as well be the city of Los Angeles. The landscape plays a pivotal role in the film, as Max is forced to transport Vincent from spot to spot. I've never been to the city of Angels, but if it's as Mann describes it, random gunfights can break out just about anywhere. Even in a dance club -which represents one of the best-filmed shootouts in recent cinematic history.
Along the way from hit to hit, Max and Vincent find time to discuss philosophy. When Max wonders incredulously how Vincent can kill people on first meeting them, Max sardonically asks What I should only kill people after I get to know them?
For perhaps the first time in his career, Cruise, sporting gray hair, plays an amoral character. Vincent is less bad guy than he is sociopath, which makes him all the more terrifying as a character. He repeatedly says I do this for a living and his nihilistic outlook paints a bit of the background of his character: this is a man with nothing to lose. In other words, this is no Jerry Maguire, or any other of Cruise's trademark clean-cut good guys.
Mann ambitiously integrates high-definition digital video into the film, as it alternates between that and standard film stock. One can certainly discern the difference in film selections, as half the film somewhat resembles a music video, and the digital parts have a distinctly brighter hue to them. If anything, the different selections for different scenes gives the audience a chance to see what the future of film quality might look like, although, for now, directors would be wise to stick with the tried and true 35 mm.
Possessed of brilliant cinematography, a gritty soundtrack and an ability to escape the conventions of its finale (think the chase scene in The French Connection), Collateral takes a stereotypical Hollywood tale - that of the assassin and his prey - and morphs it into a piece of art worthy of the critical acclaim it has received.
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Kyle Kondik
