Collateral

There are a lot of critics of the Cruise (Tom Cruise), generally from the quarter of the viewing population that don’t know their arse from their elbow. Fact of the batter is that for 27 years Tom Cruise has been a consistently performing actor, an arse in reality maybe but as a star he puts that little bit more into his roles. It’s this sort of commitment and hard work that means that Cruise’s movies are known products that dominate the box office. Personally I think the guy is a fantastic talent, adaptable, prepared to take a gamble, and in his career I can only see a couple of movies that fall under the category of being turkeys.

 

Collateral is not one of those movies that I would consider to be a turkey, I don’t think it’s a magnificent work of art but then to be honest I find all of director Michael Mann’s movies god but not the sort of thing that you can continuously watch.  One thing you can say about Mann is that all his movies are beautifully shot and Collateral is no exception, I’d go as to say that with the exception of his 1983 movie The Keep, Collateral is the most visually stunning of the directors output.

 

Max (Jamie Foxx) is a taxi driver, living a normal life; not a rich man but not a poor one either. He enjoys his job, and is a fairly likeable individual. For Max his shift starts normally a nattering old fool, followed by a beautiful lawyer called Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith) who seemingly makes an instant connection. Max’s next fare is the enigmatic Vincent (Tom Cruise) , the two have an enticing conversation not dissimilar to that of a late night chat show, but before the fare comes to an end Vincent fires a question at Max, the question being if Max will work for him during the entire night.  Max agrees after a little considered thought and thinks he is in for a fairly calm and controlled night; unbeknown to Max however Vincent is a vicious and ruthless hitman, and the first Max knows of this is the arrival of a body on his taxi cab roof.

 

Collateral is the thinking person’s action movie, scenes of extreme action followed up by minutes of dialogue that set the movies taste and feel as Vincent slowly lets the un-accepting Max experience the darker aspects of his very varied life. The dialogue is quick, well thought out, but deathly to the point.

 

The game the movie plays is very much a cat and mouse tale where at various junctures of the movie Max and Vincent fight to achieve the upper hand, the one that holds all the cards. While Max believes much of the time during his upper hand moments it’s through sharp thinking, for the first portion of the movie your unaware if this is actually Vincent allowing this aspect to occur, to add a little fuel to what might otherwise be a very easy game.

 

What is most obvious about the movie is that this is not just a master and slave type scenario, to a major level the characters both have a certain degree of admiration for each other, you could even say they like each other. It’s certainly the case for Vincent, and at times there are key pointers that let you believe that Max might just feel the same. Max likes Vincent’s power, while Vincent enjoys the freedom of life that Max enjoys.

 

There is something in the back of my mind that ties Collateral to Mann’s earlier movie Heat, it’s almost as if Collateral is an earlier aspect of De Niro’s character Neil. If you look at Cruise and De Niro in both movies, they look the same both bearded with greying hair (here making Cruise look like almost a different actor); they both have the same levels of compassion, kindness, and ruthless aggression.

 

I’m sure Cruise had a lot of fun with this movie, not a stranger to action Cruise rarely gets to play the bad guy, and to play such an efficient cold blooded killer I suspect would be a highlight in anyone’s career, let alone that of an actor usually associated with being the hero. Even though Vincent is the bad guy, you find yourself rooting for him over Foxx’s weaker Max. This is one killer you want to succeed, and that’s why the movie is heavily balanced on the darker side than the good as most movies generally are.

 

Every one of the movies performers deliver from Cruise as the lead, to Peter Berg and Mark Ruffalo as cops in chase of the deadly Vincent. Eagle eyed viewers will notice an early performance from recent Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men).

 

Collaterals musical score is delivered by composer James Newton Howard who has contributed considerably to recent cinema, as well as what would now be regarded as Modern Cinema. From traditional use of brass and string instruments, to a sort of hyped up techno offering the movies power is delivered chiefly by the score that is unusually present in varying forms through the entire movie, moments of silence are literally only for seconds almost as if his orchestra have been given a matter of seconds to gain a breath.

 

On this my third viewing of the movie I find myself in new ground, having watched the movie as a large projected image. This is a movie that benefits greatly from a big screen, so much so it almost seems like a different movie altogether. Collateral is an enticing rollercoaster ride of a movie that will keep you captivated until the movies final breath.