Collateral 2004

[7.4/10] There’s an unfulfilled need in movies and television for works that bridge the gap between heady prestige picture material and mindless action. Films like Inception and television shows like Daredevil play in that space, providing cool set pieces and rough and tumble thrills while also trying to Say Something™, but such offerings are few and far between. Not every action flick suddenly needs to suddenly ape Citizen Kane or Casablanca, but give me more films that include the usual fireworks, but also offer something for the audience to chew on.

That’s essentially where Collateral fits in, as a semi-heady but ultimately very familiar crime thriller. Director Michael Mann provides various artsy twists on that routine, from philosophical conversations between the film’s protagonists, to lingering symbolic sequences that don’t move the plot forward but add texture to those themes, and subversions here and there to try to assure the viewer that this isn’t just another cops and robbers flick.

But at it’s core, Collateral is still a standard issue bit of modern day action-packed crime noir. That gives the film a spine, something to hang its philosophy on and propel the plot forward, but it also limits the ability of the movie to transcend the tropes of the genre and become something more. It has the Fincher-esque washed out green color palette; it has the tet-a-tets among feds, local cops, hitmen, and gangsters, and its premise inevitably gives way to a standard “save the day, and the girl, from the bad guy” routine.

But it tries to distinguish itself from its peers in a number of ways, and Mann deserves credit for that. First and foremost, Collateral is a character story, centered around the arc of Max (Jamie Foxx), a cab driver who gets caught up in the world of mob hits and police investigations when hitman Vincent (Tom Cruise) steps into his cab. More than who lives or who dies or who achieves what, Collateral is about the gradual transformation of Max under Vincent’s insidious but self-actualizing influence.

The film is pretty clunky about it, but it quickly establishes Max as both a perfectionist, someone who is precise and knowledgeable about how long a certain route will take, and meticulous in the way he keeps his cab, and his life, as pristine as possible. Max is order and regimen incarnate, always waiting for when the time is right. In comes Vincent, who talks up jazz and the importance of improvisation, who is precise in his own way, but also ready to roll with the punches and above all, believes in acting without hesitation. And what do you know, they clash a bit!

Collateral isn’t subtle about any of this, wearing its themes and its character development on its sleeve. But it does show Vincent quickly seeing the potential in Max, diagnosing him as sharp and talented too hesitant to act, and pushing him to stand up for himself and realize that potential. He is, in a very twisted way, Max’s very own Manic Pixie Dream Girl. The film isn’t nearly as clever about this as it seems to think, with Vincent coming off like a cut-rate Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men (which is amusing with Javier Bardem in this movie) spouting dime store nihilism and ideology about the impertinence of morality in a vast, uncaring universe.

But it’s at least done with a purpose, to contrast Vincent who has seemingly gone too far in his “I can do anything because nothing matters” self-satisfaction with Max’s “I can’t do anything because everything matters” ethos. Max has to get everything right, eliminate all the risks and attain perfection before he’s willing to move, while Vincent is decisive to a fault, disdaining such risk calculations as foolish in a world where plans can be dashed and lives can be changed in an instant, something he and his profession are a living testament to.

Cruise and Foxx go a long way toward elevating these individuals to becoming characters with layers and not just walking embodiments of certain isms. Foxx indicates a bit too much, but does a nice job at distinguishing the moments when Max is a reluctant guy who is out of his depth, and the moments where his own self-direction and confidence starts to peek out and take over. Cruise in particular is stellar playing against type here. Beyond the salt and pepper, he brings a quiet intensity to a morally compromised figure, making cheesy monologues sound plausible and conveying a cold conviction that serves the character well.

Mann also knows how to construct a superb action set piece. The coup de grâce of the film is a sequence set in a dance club with our would-be heroes, rival gangsters, FBI agents, and cops are all chasing one another through one crowded dance floor. Mann and cinematographers Dion Beebe and Paul Cameron capture the tension of these different players making their way through the crowd, and the chaos that ensues when the shooting inevitably starts. It’s artfully done, and practically justifies the existence of the film on its own.

Which is good, because after that point, Collateral loses its grip on its themes and its plot, devolving into the default gestures and threats that come in a typical action thriller. There’s still artistry to it, with Vincent’s shadows looming and the symbolism of people’s images mirrored in reflective surfaces, but suddenly the film becomes a slasher flick. Vincent becomes a nigh-supernatural antagonist, in a contrived final scenario, and of course it provides the fodder for Max to, once and for all, face his own propensity to hesitate.

Collateral is about seizing opportunities, and the risk that without action, those opportunities get away from you. The film itself presents such an opportunity, to use the form of the action-y crime drama to get at deeper themes and meaning rather than settle for the standard cat and mouse game. At times, Michael Mann and Collateral achieve this, providing enough thematic heft to give weight to the usual fisticuffs and shoot-em-ups, but too often the film retreats to the regular conventions of the genre and, like Max, misses the change to be something greater in the process.