Collateral (2004, R)

Directed by: Michael Mann

Grade: B+

Details.  Details.  Details.  Everything that Collateral has going for it is in details: details in Michael Mann’s direction, the details in the characters, the details in the production value, the details in the dialogue, the details in the shootouts, and the details in the performances from Jamie Foxx, as the lonely cabbie driver Max, and from Tom Cruise as the ice-cool, calculated professional hitman Max.  It’s subsequently these details, which are not excessive nor light, that pay off to exceeding levels in Collateral.  Undeniably, a massive part of this is due to the first details I mentioned: the details in Michael Mann’s direction.  The way that Mann directs his films is so unique from other Hollywood directors in that, yet again, he’s all about the details.

While I have decided that two of Mann’s earlier pictures, 1992’s the Last of the Mohicans and 1995’s Heat (one of my all-time favorite movies) are superior to Collateral in every shape and form, Mann definitely keeps his cool in Collateral, and technically, the way he operates behind the camera here is no different than from the Last of the Mohicans or Heat, except, seemingly, he’s here to have fun while making a serious movie.  Yet again, I point to details.  It’s the details in Collateral, especially in the way of how the characters interact with each other, that allow it to succeed.  In other words, Mann was the perfect choice to direct Collateral, and the way that the film is shot and the way in that it is told from a character-oriented position is what unexpectedly makes Collateral raise both the action and the thriller genre to an entirely new level. 

The storyline theme for Collateral was already generating chills down my spine even before I inserted the DVD into the player.  One night.  Five hits.  One getaway.  Then it’s all over (as we are led to think, at first).  Max is the cabbie driver.  He’s lonely, wants to operate his own business one day, but finds himself stuck in a low-paying job as a cabbie.  We get a lengthy scene of Max talking to a federal prosecutor, named Annie (Jada Pinkett-Smith), while driving her to her office.  It’s in this early scene in which we already realize Max’s true character, and we are quick to grasp at this point that Max finds Annie as a person that he can easily open his feelings to.  It is this scene that is bridged to the climax, as Max’s faith in (and attraction) to Annie is what leads to the enticing (even if unbelievable) finale.

Then Vincent arrives on the scene.  Hidden beneath a gray suit, black sunglasses, and gray hair, it’s easy to see that Vincent is a guy who does won’t accept any impediment in his “work”.  Max unknowingly finds himself transporting a dangerous hitman, but things start getting wild when Vincent is forced to reveal his true identity when he shoots a guy from the rooftop down onto Max’s cab.  After that, Max, against his will, is forced to take Vincent on to his next hits, and Vincent shows Max he means business when he performs the Mozambique Drill on two unlucky thugs who foolishly try to take his briefcase.  Fortunately though, it’s the dialogue that converses between Max and Vincent: Max having the crap scared out of him the entire way and Vincent keeping his cool, in which we can see the deep contrast in the character study of these two men. 

What additionally keeps the audience invested in Collateral throughout the film is the fact that suspense is on Collateral’s side.  The film keeps us randomly guessing about what’s going to happen next and isn’t predictable at all.  Certainly, this is a major improvement over the last few action flicks that have made it to the cinemas somehow, in which the hero is an unstoppable, righteous superhuman who shoots and punches his way through waves of bad guys.  Collateral is realistic in that not even Vincent is superhuman: he’s human, and he’s professional, but even his professionalism slips from his grasp as is proven in the climax.  Of course, we all know that Max is the real hero here, and what’s likeable about his character is how he’s a new kind of hero, sort of in tradition of Bilbo Baggins from Tolkien’s book the Hobbit: socially awkward, clumsy, and most inept at what gets thrown at,him and yet we still find ourselves rooting for him all the way through.

Obviously, Collateral is not near as thematically-deep nor close to being as cinematically-stunning as Mann’s earlier films, namely the two that I named in the middle of the first paragraph, but in the end, Collateral proves itself to be an action-thriller well worth paying for, for all the reasons that I have explained.  This film effortlessly grabs our attention and just as effortlessly holds on to it until the credits are allowed to role, which I suspect is the reason why I liked it so much.  B+