What About It?
There's no question that Michael Mann can make a crime film. The settings, sustained mood, the right focus on the city and skyline, music as a vital part of the setting, these are all staples in his bag of tricks which come through wonderfully here. The highways, helicopters, and palm trees all tell us part of the story. He leaves nothing to chance, at times using LA itself to draw attention to the movement of the characters. Mann is without a doubt a master of his craft.
The difference between Max and Vincent is told in how they see LA. Where Max sees it simply as Home, Vincent sees a place packed with people who can't see each other when they pass on the street. His prophetic story about a man dying on the LA subway tells us what he sees there and also what he sees in life. It's a view well suited for his choice of career.
While the chases and showdowns you expect from an action crime movie are here, the real work is in the characters and how they affect each other. This isn't an action movie but a drama dressed up with action. The car crash for example isn't about the crash as much as it is about the men getting out of the wreckage. You would think that a conscientious cab driver and a hit man would have little to offer each other, but each offers the other something significant which they perhaps didn't know they needed and wouldn't have gotten from anyone else. While it's heavily suggested that Vincent plans to kill max when he's done with his hits, he nonetheless takes a real interest in Max's life. There is something about Max that Vincent appreciates, which begins with realizing (as Annie did,) that he makes a point of being very good at what he does, which Vincent himself does.
His efforts to "help" Max come through, in spite of himself. Vincent sees a very competent man who doesn't insist on his own value. When he threatens Max's dispatcher and forces Max to tell him off, he's clearly making a point. He could easily let Max make up his own story, but he feels strongly that Max shouldn't be talked to that way. We don't know what Vincent's normal behavior is, but we can gather that trying to show a man he's planning to kill soon is not his usual pattern. He has justifications for what he does, but he takes his actions further than reason requires. When Max visits his mother, Vincent has no logical reason to force Max to bring flowers, but does, stating urgently "She carried you in her womb for nine months."
We learn that Vincent's own mother died in childbirth and this visit perhaps affects him profoundly. Vincent can kill a man for stealing his bag without hesitation, yet despite all the trouble he has with Max, he is repeatedly shown as not even considering that option in his case.
Vincent is at a kind of crossroads, possibly before meeting Max. His comment about the man who dies on the subway is perhaps a question he ponders in relation to himself, positioned as he is as the ultimate loner, cut off from everyone, with as anonymous an existence as possible. He paints himself as "indifferent." yet we see that there are things he does care about, like jazz. He admires the improvisation of it, seeing himself as an improviser of the highest order. He includes Max in his musing about it when he says: "Most people, 10 years from now, same job, same place, same routine, everything the same, just keeping it safe, over and over and over. Ten years from now? Man, you don't know where you'll be ten minutes from now." He realizes that he's accurately described Max's existence.
We see that he's genuinely interested in Daniel's story of his one meeting with Miles Davis, which is ultimately another example of one the movies major themes, dreams that you don't make happen. It's possible that we're witnessing another example of Vincent's crisis, when he offers Daniel a chance to get away. We do wonder as Max does, if he would've honored his offer if he had given the answer he wanted, but whether he would've or not, it's telling that he considered it. Max affects Vincent quickly in ways he doesn't realize. Vincent even has the opportunity to stand by and let Max get shot. Ultimately Vincent gets what he wants, "someone to notice" when he dies on the subway.
The change however, goes both ways. Vincent telling him that "twelve years isn't temporary" is perhaps exactly what he needs to hear. Despite his dislike of Vincent, he acknowledges that he's "never looked at it that way." when Vincent says "All it ever took was a down payment on a Lincoln town car. That girl,you can't even call that girl. What the fuck are you still doing driving a cab? " It bothers him that Max clings to this plan for "someday" when Vincent and Max on some level both know that he isn't treating his plan as a reality, thus ensuring that his cab driving has become his life, like Daniel the jazz man who no doubt, planned to get back to his music but settled for owning a club.
Max gets quite a few reminders of how short life is and we hope that he uses those reminders to put down the payment on the Lincoln Town Car. He at least gives the girl a call, although he had a huge push to do so. And he gets the chance to step outside his comfort zone and "improvise." proving that he's capable of doing so. If he hadn't met Vincent, we could easily see Max dreaming about his limo company forever, "making arrangements" until he accepts that it isn't going to happen and it becomes a "could've been."
It's interesting that of the many parties after Vincent (and Max) that no one can really affect him except Max. The detective who was posed to pull Max out of the situation is shot down as soon as Vincent sees him, as little more than a nuisance, because ultimately everything that happens in the film is what happens between the two men. Everything else is decoration to put them in the places they need to be. Here, that technique is remarkably effective, producing the needed tension to give their story the urgency desired for the two of them to be irrevocably changed in one night.
The acting here is all terrific. Jamie Fox carries his role competently, giving us a completely believable Max as a competent man, who is very good at "bullshitting himself." Mark Ruffalo is very good as well, although his part, intentionally I'm sure, feels unresolved. Jada Pinkett Smith also does wonders with her little screen time, building a believable rapport with Max in minutes, despite the unlikeliness of it on the surface. But Tom Cruise is really what makes the film, his Vincent is such an intricate and fascinating character. I'm not at all a fan of Tom Cruise, but giving credit where it's due, I have to see it's a truly wonderful performance. As despicable as Vincent is, I still felt bad to see him left on the subway.
"Collateral" to me is a movie about the major things that happen as a result of meetings we don't expect to happen. Sometimes we know ourselves so well, that left to our own devices we simply do what we've always done. And while it's the last thing you want, an outside opinion affecting your life may be exactly what you need to make a change happen. Many people have dreams that go unfulfilled, and sometimes it is as simple as buying a Lincoln Town Car, or calling a girl on the phone, but left to your own devices, you'll only ever have what you yourself know is true. Many times that's what kept you where you are in the first place. Vincent's speech nicely sums up a tragedy that happens to people with dreams every day:
"One night you will wake up and discover it never happened. It's all turned around on you. It never will. Suddenly you are old. Didn't happen, and it never will, because you were never going to do it anyway. You'll push it into memory and then zone out in your barco lounger, being hypnotized by daytime TV for the rest of your life. Don't you talk to me about murder. All it ever took was a down payment on a Lincoln town car. That girl, you can't even call that girl. What the fuck are you still doing driving a cab? "
What Happens?
Vincent,(Tom Cruise) a serious looking man in sunglasses and a nice suit gets off a plane in Los Angeles and looks warily around while passing through. The crowd of people is presented as blurry except for another serious looking man (Jason Statham) walking towards Vincent. Vincent "accidentally" bumps into the other man, causing both to drop their cases. After checking apologetically to see if the man's alright, the men pick up their bags each picking up the one the other dropped and go on their way.
