Collateral Cruise
The usual critique of Tom Cruise is that he is an industrious but predictable actor, and the critics point to a lengthy list of his films where they say it's more work than play. Cruise put an end to this kind of sniping, though, with his performance in "Collateral". In Michael Mann's beautifully made film, he's Vincent, a contract killer who arrives in Los Angeles at sunset and plans to leave at sunrise after shooting five witnesses in a federal prosecution of a drug cartel.
With his exquisitely tailored silver-grey suit and his cultivated stubble, Vincent is a most elegant predator, a lone wolf. The trademark Cruise smile takes a backseat as the actor reveals an intelligent, charming character who kills dispassionately while treating murder as a logistics challenge. Although Michael Mann's Los Angeles is dark and threatening at times, it is also boisterously gaudy and it is in this man-made hell and heaven that Vincent meets Max Durocher (Jamie Foxx), who will provide his transport through the night. An odd bond develops between the assassin and the taxi-driver. Why kill people, Max wants to know? "Darwin," says Vincent, by which he means that we cannot have evolution without death. He talks of the billions of stars in the sky and the billions of people on Earth. Then he compares the fate of the first victim of the evening's killing spree to genocide in Africa:
Vincent: "Max, six billion people on the planet, you're getting bent out of shape cause of one fat guy."
Max: "Well, who was he?"
Vincent: "What do you care? Have you ever heard of Rwanda?"
Max: "Yes, I know Rwanda."
Vincent: "Well, tens of thousands killed before sundown. Nobody's killed people that fast since Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Did you bat an eye, Max?"
Max: "What?"
Vincent: "Did you join Amnesty International, Oxfam, Save the Whales, Greenpeace, or something? No. I off one fat Angelino and you throw a hissy fit."
Who cares if someone dies? It begins to dawn on Max that he, too, may be dead before the night is over. With Collateral, Tom Cruise showed that he can play the part. Tomorrow, putting Stauffenberg in his place.
