Taking off the Cruise control

Collateral (2004)
Dreamworks SKG & Paramount Pictures present a Michael Mann film, starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. Written by Stuart Beattie. 120m. Rated R for violence and language.

3 stars

In 1976, Martin Scorsese put a serial killer in the front seat of a taxicab. For “Collateral,” Michael Mann returns him to the back.

“Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets,” Travis Bickle sneered during the key scene of “Taxi Driver.” Bickle saw himself as the cleansing agent, taking each encroachment against the welfare of New York City personally.
In “Collateral,” Vincent (Tom Cruise) lacks the emotional attachment that Travis Bickle had, which almost makes him scarier. He’s a hired gun, cold to emotional synapses like remorse or regret.

The job is simple: eliminate four key witnesses and a special prosecutor from an upcoming federal narcotrafficking trial the night before the case commences in a Los Angeles courthouse.

In movies, lives have an usual way of intersecting at the most inopportune moments. Max (Jamie Foxx) has been a cabbie for 12 years - saving up money, he says, for a full-time luxury limousine company. When Vincent offers him $600 for five stops, Max is hard pressed to say no. As the popular idiom goes, the devil is in the details, Max.

Having easily established the conflict and the general unfolding of the narrative, there isn’t much to keep this film tense except for Max’s general unwillingness to be party to murder - a revelation that hits him like a dead guy falling out a three-story window.

Instead of worrying about plot trivialities, I appreciated the unique approach to the film’s aesthetics. Mann opted to shoot the film in mostly high-definition digital video, which lacks some of the attention to detail that has kept so many filmmakers from abandoning the 20th century practice.

Much like Robert Rodriguez’s attempt during “Once Upon a Time in Mexico,” there are plenty of visual hiccups. The grain registers much more distinctly in under-lit scenes, causing some havoc when Vincent patrols a night-club for his fourth target.

But there are obvious benefits, too. The smaller camera system translates into tighter set-ups for Mann than allowable in a traditional 16 or 35mm system, leaving these extreme oft-center close-ups that are visual feasts. Anyone who has seen “Taxicab Confessions” is aware of the camera angle that encompasses both the cabbie (in right foreground) and passenger (usually in center background).

Max is not unlike the chatty cabbies of that long-running HBO program - drivers that play part-psychologist as they listen to their “client” ramble off their problems. This style attracts Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith), which is helpful to Max when the audience learns Annie is the special prosecutor Vincent will eventually be seeking to eliminate.

While Smith adds little to the overall mix, Foxx has used his role as the conscientious fellow to its advantage. The 36-year-old doesn’t have the chops to truly put a production on his back, despite his cast as lead in upcoming the Ray Charles biopic. He’s worked best as the flashy friend or, as he is in “Collateral”: an everyman who desires the taste of something out of his tax bracket.

This is the first truly evil character Cruise has played in his career. I doubt the change will be permanent, however, as his character effectively negated his most prominent characteristic: his boyish looks. Audiences will be sold on Vincent because the actor doesn’t play him too over the top or too distant. There is an air of mystery about the hitman that should have interests sufficiently piqued.

On the other hand, Cruise is too much a star to not occasionally remind you that he is essentially Tom Cruise playing someone, not being someone. Don’t expect a Ron Kovic or a Frank “T.J.” Mackey-like performance; Mann isn’t working him any harder than Steven Spielberg, John Woo or Rob Reiner did.

Correction: Someone pointed out to me that Travis Bickle wasn't a serial killer. He's more of a psychopath. I agree.