Director: Michael Mann, US, 120min
Stars: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx
On general release
Cruise goes against type in Mann’s stylish new thriller as Vincent, a sharp-suited Mob assassin with morals as grey as his coiffure. He’s in town to perform a series of hits for a Mafia bigwig, and ghosts through the Los Angeles night in the back of a cab driven by Max (Foxx), a dreamer whose basic optimism is about to be tested.
When Vincent disappears to perform his next hit, Max is kept in his seat — and the audience on the edge of theirs — by a series of unlikely plot devices. As the night wears on, each man — Cruise the acid, Foxx the alkali — strips away the surface baggage of the other, and each is forced to confront some unpleasant home truths. As Max slowly realises that he is probably to be the evening’s final victim, he is forced to overcome his character deficiencies and perform a decisive act.
Although ostensibly a two-hander, the film does, in effect, have a third character — the city of Los Angeles itself. While within the cab, the two protagonists develop their strangely inter-dependent relationship, outside, Mann’s edgy camera pokes into the crannies of the city’s darkest streets, making one of the largest urban agglomerations on Earth seem every bit as claustrophobic as the cab itself. Although marred by a disappointingly Hollywood final quarter, Collateral is really all about the ride. And that’s definitely worth the price of admission.
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Nigel Kendall