The Man with No Name except Vincent Hates LA (Collateral [2004] (DVD))

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Collateral [2004] (DVD)
Date:	20/03/05 (136 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Superbly made, Great Action, Good performances

Disadvantages: A little far fetched at times

Let’s face it, the hit-man genre has been hip and cool for some time now. Directors such as Quentin Tarrantino (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction), Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and others have revived the twilight zone of Mafioso killings and stylish film noir to bring to life the cold existence of the contract killer. Set in a sun-baked, sprawling vista of neon lit streets and palm trees at sundown, Michael Mann directs a meticulous tale of pre-mediated death and intrigue set against the back drop of a beautifully observed Los Angeles panorama. What’s unusual about this tale is the level of intense philosophising that gets inside of the head of the main characters.
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Director: Michael Mann
Run Time: 120 mins
Cert: 15

Main Cast:
Tom Cruise - Vincent
Jamie Foxx - Max
Jada Pinkett Smith - Annie
Mark Ruffalo - Fanning
Peter Berg - Richard Weidner
Bruce McGill - Pedrosa
Irma P. Hall - Ida
Barry Shabaka Henley – Daniel
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Max (Jamie Foxx) is a cab driver dreaming of better things who has just dropped off his latest pick up – Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith) the district attorney – having successfully charmed her into giving him her telephone number. He has hardly noticed that she is working on a big case involving a ring of informants due to give testimony in a major underworld prosecution. His next fair is the immaculately turned out Vincent (Tom Cruise) who slips into the cab complete with suitcase and swept back, grey hair. Promising to pay Max $600 if he drives him around for the night, Max agrees. However, things go wrong at his first stop. Having parked in an alley to avoid double parking, Max is startled to find a body crashing onto the roof of his cab. Seconds later, he realises that the man has just been shot by his passenger. Vincent co-coerces Max into continuing to drive him to his subsequent hits with the cab driver desperate to jump off the cynical merry-go-round of paid killings.

The thing that strikes you about Collateral is the attention to detail of the direction. Michael Mann has a long pedigree of quality movies from Manhunter (1986) to Ali (2001). What’s so absorbing about this movie is the fine detail that LA is painted in, often through moving shots of the sidewalks and freeways from within the environment of the taxi. There is a real atmosphere similar to that recreated in previous film noir with pretty much all of the action taking place in the low light of evening with several layers of background, big City noise that adds to the authenticity of the setting. Mann seems to be trying to capture the paradox of a City housing millions of people with the abject loneliness of many in a city that potentially doesn’t care. It’s that philosophising of Vincent that questions given values who encapsulates this through a story about a dead man sitting on a train who isn’t discovered for several days whilst people come and go having even sat next to him.

Cruise gives a searing performance as the hit man, Vincent. With numerous close up shots of his face, he cooks up an emotionless expression for the most part, often employing a cold stare with unblinking eyes that gives him that air of menace. By way of contrast, Vincent is often found philosophising with Max in a street cred kind of cynical way in an attempt to justify what he does. Maybe it’s me but Cruise looked and sounded more like Clint Eastwood than Clint Eastwood does these days. With swept back hair, stubble surrounding his face and words forced out of a clenched mouth, he is the epitome of the nameless anti-hero from Eastwood spaghetti westerns from a bygone era. That may be why I enjoyed his performance so much although the accusation of a kind of acting plagiarism would probably insult Mr Cruise who is an underrated actor in my view.

Jamie Foxx (Ali, Ray) does create a certain chemistry with Cruise during the frequent two-player scenes that they find themselves in. A minus point for Foxx is that he fails to convince as someone that desperate to escape the situation he finds himself locked into. There is a definite cool dude feel to Max the cab driver that’s just a little too laid back given the dilemma. On the positive side, he does manage to do a Will Smith in several of the action scenes, notably in the finale even if it is dogged by an overdose of cliché and unlikely second-guessing from Vincent.

I guess the downside to Collateral is the exceeding the bounds of believability at times. Max is put into situations that only really belong in movies and it is hard to grasp how he doesn’t manage to simply run away on occasions. Of course, that would be too easy and promptly end the story but nevertheless suspension of belief is required to make the story work all the way through to it’s explosive and neatly drawn conclusion. I suppose if you wanted an example of this it would be the bizarre visit to see Max’s mother in hospital during which Vincent engages her in twee conversation whilst her son frets about the notion of his mom engaging in dialogue with a cold blooded killer.

This is more than offset by the stylised shoot outs, particularly towards the finale and here again, the director manages to point out that the population is so wrapped up in its own agenda that it often even fails to notice acts of brutality going on around it. Often people get killed with little reaction from passers-by that suggests a dystopian view of both LA and maybe even American in general. This is reflected throughout by Vincent’s attitude and approach to both his "job" and his life, frowning upon Max's lack of desire to actually get up and realise his dream.

As the momentum builds, the eventual clash of one realising his ambition whilst the other still fails to live their dream provides the ultimate enigma of a happy killer with a cab driver who still lies to his mom about his occupation. It’s great credit to the script writers and, in particular, Stuart Beattie, that the plot is written well enough to draw out these nuances that challenge the audience and take the movie to several levels above a straight-forward shoot ‘em up.

Collateral also has a musical score that includes contributions from the likes of James Newton Howard that blend a saxophone kind of feel with the jazz driven frames that add to the noir aspect of the movie.

All in all, Collateral is a classy movie laced with violence that is for adults only. The story is tight with a number of cyclical threads that come full circle at the end. So if you like your movies with action and suspense then you will love this. Cruise is on top form whilst Foxx is endearing so expect a great performance from the cast even if the story is a little unbelievable at times. Michael Mann has done it again with a fabulous piece of work! Enjoy.

Thanks for reading

Marandina

Available on VHS and DVD from Amazon from £11.99

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