Review

Review Date: 8-August-04
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Collateral (2004)

Michael Mann's new action-drama thriller is the second movie this summer to have a one-word title beginning with "C" and a storyline about an unassuming nobody who takes charge after a run-in with the dark side. Whereas "Catwoman" allowed its heroine to express her strength in becoming a dominatrix, "Collateral" gives its hero a gun and a modest pair of cojones. In presenting fairly stereotypical views of feminine and masculine empowerment, neither movie plumbs new depths thematically or psychologically, but "Collateral," at least, possesses a well constructed script, topnotch performances, and a carefully modulated atmosphere of cool.

The story follows a cab driver named Max (Jamie Foxx) during one event-filled night in LA. Max is a decent, practical guy whose "temporary" gig with the taxi company has stretched on for 12 years and seems destined to bury him and his dreams in impotent obscurity. Even so, he retains enough hopeful confidence to flirt with a stunning federal prosecutor whom he picks up at the airport (Jada Pinkett Smith), and his night starts well when she responds favorably to his gentle advances. Max's next fare, however, is a slick-tongued suit named Vincent (Tom Cruise), who quickly exposes himself as a hit man in a moment that would have packed a lot of punch if the trailer hadn't given it away. Vincent then forcibly recruits Max to chauffeur him from one murder to the next, and although their activities arouse the interest of an intuitive cop (Mark Ruffalo), it is principally up to the cabbie to rescue himself (and what potential victims he can) using his own intelligence and untapped courage.

As the adventure progresses, a strange bond grows between captive and captor. Both men are loners who view the world from the sidelines; perhaps this is why Max listens when Vincent talks and Vincent doesn't kill Max when things start going sour. Cruise expertly portrays an intelligent sociopath who, instead of gorging on video games and Megadeth and gunning down his classmates in high school, grew up to take revenge as the very best assassin he could be. Yet it rests with Foxx to carry the picture in the less flashy role, and he provides the perfect down-to-earth foil to Cruise's inescapably larger-than-life persona. To their credit (and that of screenwriter Stuart Beattie), they avoid exaggerating Max's need to step up and be a man or promoting an underhanded idolization of the violent authority that Vincent wields. Instead, they offer two disparately flawed men who respond to one another under pressure, and their mutual chemistry spins magic out of several scenes (including a funny one in which Vincent commands Max to tell off his employer).

Mann directs "Collateral" with a glossy, music-fueled chic which jibes nicely with the excitement of a big city after hours. The movie never lets you forget that Max is going through his personal, growth-inducing nightmare just a hair's breadth away from millions of other people with fears, pursuits, and intentions, both good and evil, of their own (which offers some grounds for Vincent's nihilistic outlook). But for the space of two hours the larger world is a backdrop for a guy just trying to get through the night, and the clincher is that he makes his exit a little less insignificant than when he came in.

Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.