Not Cool, Calm, or Collected
Foxx Makes Collateral Believable

The film Collateral begins quietly, as Max (Jamie Foxx) drives his cab through the streets of L.A. The mood is benign, unassuming, and that's exactly why it works. Max is not some hero or comedy relief. He's just a guy. He's one of us. And when it all comes down, he is one scared human being reacting in a very believable way.

The story is ambitious and scary. Vincent (Tom Cruise) is a man in L.A. on business who hires Max to be his personal chauffeur for the night, promising him $700 for the trouble. It's against the rules, but Max could use the money for a business he hopes to start. With a little cajoling, Max accepts and agrees to wait for Vincent while he meets someone. While he waits, eating his dinner and dreaming of his own limo service, an unexpected guest drops onto the roof of his cab. Vincent, it turns out, is more than a mere businessman. He's an assassin fulfilling a contract.

Foxx plays Max with a panic and helplessness that makes him completely believable. He is frightened for his life and wants to escape, but he literally has a gun pointed at his head. His choice: drive or die. As the story moves forward, Foxx's actions are not the contemplative, well-reasoned choices of a hero. He is acting on instinct and sometimes makes very bad choices.

Dovetailing with Max's story is an investigation by a L.A. cop named Fanning (Mark Ruffalo) who is trying to track down the disappearance of one of his contacts. The missing man just happens to be the first man who Vincent kills, a connection that will have the LAPD and the FBI hot on Max's tail.

While Foxx is playing a man in whom we see ourselves, Tom Cruise is playing a man whom we can't begin to understand. His moral flexibility allows him to murder people without remorse, and he has no problem killing anyone who stands in his way. When he threatens to kill more innocent bystanders if Max doesn't do his job, the audience does not doubt for a moment that he would carry out such a threat.

Although Cruise is fantastic in this bad guy role, it is Foxx who deserves the credit for making the film what it is. While it could have degenerated into a story of an unlikely hero who becomes a super stud, Foxx keeps it real by making us doubt Max at every turn. We never assume he has control of the situation. We never think he's going to win.

In addition to Foxx and Cruise, the film also stars Jada Pinkett Smith as Annie, an attorney who Max picks up early in the film. Her flirtation with Foxx helps us see his more human side, but her reappearance at the end of the film smacks of contrivance. Nevertheless, it gives Max some personal motivation to act rather than react.

The tension in Collateral builds slowly, rising and falling in a series of climaxes that get bigger over the course of two hours. The film never turns into an action movie, and for that director Michael Mann should be commended. Instead of some ridiculous car-chase laden film, he gives audiences a very intense drama about the value of life.

MY RATING: 7 out of 10.

RATED: R
RUN TIME: 120 min.