Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Collateral’ (2004)

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

If there’s one constant we can all agree upon when it comes to film, it is that cinema will forever be a carefully curated product, one that is designed to take the audience on a grand emotional ride and really, there’s nothing wrong with that. After all, we go to the movies to get away from our everyday lives and enjoy raw entertainment for a couple of hours, so seeing something that’s been perfectly designed to make us laugh, or cry, or send our spirits soaring is never a bad thing, in fact it really does serve as its own magical form of therapy.
 
However, while I too enjoy disappearing for a little while in a magical world on the silver screen, I also find myself enjoying films that shatter the norm. These are the movies that experiment with ideas and notions that aren’t commonly found in motion pictures, and the movies that I’ve truly come to love when it comes to this off beat line of thinking, are the ones that take the time to explore the sheer randomness of the universe, the ones that provide us with a story that shows us the extraordinary circumstances that people sometimes face and recently, I took the time to revisit one such film that fits this criteria to a tee, in Collateral.
 
Now for those unfamiliar with this film, in this story we are introduced to a cab driver named Max who is flat out looking for more in life. He dreams of owning his own limousine company someday, but is nowhere near achieving that goal just yet, so he plugs along in a job he cannot stand to simply pay the bills. But on this night, a night that seems like any other, Max’s life is about to be changed in the most unexpected of fashion. Because a man in his cab named Vincent, has just offered Max a boatload of money to be driven around to several stops this evening, but there is a catch when it comes to all that cash. For Max comes to discover that Vincent is a master assassin and he is now the personal driver for a cold-blooded killer and if he doesn’t get Vincent where he needs to go, Max will be another victim on this hitman’s list…

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So, I’ll say it point blank now, I freakin’ love this movie, for so many reasons and the first one is…it’s outright originality. Sure, in many ways this serves up the age-old trope of a man being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but wow, what a twist to put to that particular idea. I mean come on, a regular old cab driver being forced to deal with murder and mayhem in order to save his own hide? That’s a concept that still feels fresh after all these years and the sheer randomness associated with this idea is what helps this film work. Because sometimes, bad things come our way, and while it may not be a psycho killer riding in our car, the idea of bad juju falling from the sky isn’t new to us because we’ve had it happen to us, and we’ve all been Max and worked to figure out a way forward as our world comes crashing down around us.
 
However, the uniqueness of this film doesn’t just end with its concept, how Max’s story is told is equally as fascinating. After all, this is a movie set in Los Angeles, and one would think that a story set in that sprawling metropolis would offer up a grand and sweeping tale. Instead, this is quite the intimate affair, with most of its scenes set inside the cab. Wherein Max and Vincent interact and get to know one another and it’s just fascinating to see these characters treat each other like human beings, despite the two worlds they come from and it’s equally as intriguing to see them silently learn from the other, even though they only take a little bit away from each other and the success of this is attributed to the fact that the right actors are in place to make these types of juicy interactions pop on the screen since Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx are downright brilliant as Vincent and Max, respectively.
 
Yet what impresses me the most about this film, is how seamlessly all of these elements come together. Because let’s be honest, there’s a lot to chew on in this motion picture. It’s part personal disaster for Max, it’s a thriller by way of Vincent and it’s a grand character study on what turns men evil and how we sometimes have to stand up for ourselves regardless of the threat posed to us and it all works here thanks to Michael Mann’s masterful direction of Stuart Beattie’s screenplay and it really is a film that simply sucks you in when you settle in to watch it and in my eyes…it’s a downright flawless motion picture. So, if by chance you haven’t seen this one yet, please do, it really is a magnificent story through and through, one that definitely stays with you long after this nightmare evening comes to a close.   

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