Collateral (***1/2)
review by Jon
Waterman
Vincent, a hired assassin, needs to complete a new job in
Los Angeles. He has several stops with a strict timetable.
In comes Max. Max is the premier cab driver in the city. He
knows all the best routes and takes more pride in what he does
than anyone else you can find. When the two come together,
it’s like a match made in…well, I don’t know
what. Vincent traps Max into driving him around all night long.
This can’t be good, can it?
This, like “28
Days Later…,” is a good example
of how digital video can be used effectively. I can see both
the practical and stylistic reasons behind shooting with the
format. On the one hand, it allows quicker shooting with less
set up time while shooting with big name actors Tom Cruise
(Vincent) and Jamie Foxx (Max) in the middle of city. However,
the streets are isolated and you can easily assume they would
be closed off to begin with. So, even though there is a potentially
practical motivation, that brings us to the more solid style
portion of my argument.
Michael Mann is a calculating, thorough director. Often times
in order to make sure something is right, he’ll operate
the camera himself. His choice here was deliberate and worked
well. With the digital video, you have different options for
night shooting. He’s able to get the close-ups he wants
and needs while still maintaining a relatively good amount
of detail in the background. The lights of the cityscape take
over the frame, which creates a somewhat more natural look
while the green, blue and orange tints that come with this
approach add more grit and an underlying superficiality. Lastly,
the video tries to compensate for the dark spots by making
it lighter, which gives off a more pronounced grainy look to
once again give a subtler less than perfect, raw feel.
Along with the intelligent, well-crafted camera work comes
an intelligent, well-crafted script (by Stuart Beattie). His
characters are interesting and contrasting case studies in
human nature when confronted with intense, desperate situations.
The conflicting viewpoints on Vincent’s profession provide
a great back and forth dialogue that’s well reasoned
on both sides. Vincent seems very two-dimensional on the surface,
but don’t let that fool you. It’s just a cover
for the job. As far as the storyline goes, the script works
again. It does become slightly predictable, especially near
the end, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t surprises.
There’s one particular sequence, which shocked me due
to it’s against the Hollywood grain execution, but I
don’t want to say anymore.
“Collateral” is like Vincent. It does what it
has to do and gets out. All business. Very efficient. By the
time you know what to expect, it’s too late to stop it,
so just let it happen. Yeah, I know. The analogy lost its steam
at the end there, but so does the movie. But it’s still
a very good movie worth seeing.
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