Collateral

USA, 2004

Director:

Michael Mann

Starring:

Matt: B

Adam: B

Not a classic by any means, but a solid and watchable Saturday night thriller. As with all Michael Mann films, it looks stylish and the plot develops naturally and at a good pace. There are some silly moments and the film does not quite work as a meditation on fate and 'coincidence' and the final 'twist' seems forced. However, the good outweighs the bad and the ending is well-judged. Cruise is watchable and exudes the necessary menace and clearly enjoys playing the bad guy.

I confess that I don't understand the level of vitriol that gets directed at Cruise. He's an idiot, yes, but he's not a terrible actor (though he's by no means a great one either) and can carry a film on his own. He was great in Magnolia, and that was by no means an easy role to play. There are others, whose insipid and characterless meandering through films (Broderick, Gere, and the like), deserve vitriol that for some reason gets directed elsewhere.

One place it doesn't get directed, however, is Jamie Foxx and, again, he excels himself here, imbuing the likable Max with a vulnerable charm which the plot development somewhat spoils towards the end. It would have been a more interesting film, if Mann had not made Max into the vigilante hero he is at the end. There are a number of potentially intriguing ways this could have been side-stepped, but Mann takes the easy option and the character, and, therefore, the film both suffer as a result. A good idea, well (if certainly not flawlessly) executed.

ME