Collateral:
Or, Jamie Foxx Outfoxes the fox
By Tom Dempster
To be quite honest, I am still securely on the fence about this one. Like so
many undecided American voters (you poor bastards), I am highly undecided whether
I enjoyed this movie or was so annoyed with the ponderous ending that I wanted
to wretch all over Tom Cruise’s anchorman hair.
On one hand, the film is rather well-shot. Apparently, it was done totally with
digital video – and there have been problems with this in the past, and
the first well-crafted movie in my book using DV was “28 Days Later.”
(Sky Wanker used DV, but to less well-done results) “Collateral,”
shot only at night with minimal editing, provides a viewer with a host of classic
and somewhat novel camera techniques, framing scenes rather well with a uniquely
urban and dark mask applied. Shots are still rich despite low light, and color
treatment used to enhance certain aspects of the film is effective and tasteful.
On the other hand, there’s the case of the executioner-script-gone-haywire.
I would like to think that a man bent on terminating all his rivals and cohorts
at the behest of a carjacked taxi-driver could end up on a dark and serious
note – not something that reminds me of the Terminator or some other light
fare. Some of the dialogue breaks the character of Cruise and Foxx without adding
any dynamism to the surprising flatness in both.
On the other hand, though, Jamie Foxx proves he has some range. Though not formidable
in the least, he is, at the very minimum, believable in his hesitance, fear,
and quizzicality toward the hell-bent Cruise. But he's still a little too well-dressed
to be a taxi-driver.
On the other hand, again, Cruise portrays his character a little too much like
a Bret Easton Ellis character, and ends up absorbing some out-of-place character
elements from “American Psycho.” I cannot easily see Cruise as a
likeable meanie-bobeanie going around whacking his rivals without chuckling
a little bit. I can, however, very easily see a less superstar-status actor
– like Kurtwood Smith, or even James Spader – as a mildly-eccentric-in-normal-life
but off-his-nut vengeance wreaker. The somewhat sudden yet predictable flip
at the end – that is to say, Cruise decides to save a last victim –
is stupendously overdone, and the false notes of mercy for his targets Cruise
displays from the onset predicts this.
I can’t decide about this movie. I suppose I will have to when I’m
confronted with it when it shows up on video.