'Collateral' execution is dead-on

Tom Cruise is destined to win accolades for his coldly efficient turn as the professional assassin in Michael Mann's coolly attenuated thriller "Collateral," not so much for the depth as for the hard, impenetrable surface of his performance. Under a neat salt-and-pepper trim and stubbly beard, Cruise is a man whose youthful cockiness has aged into self-assurance and cool confidence. It's a masterstroke of casting.

MOVIE REVIEW

COLLATERAL

DIRECTOR: Michael Mann

CAST: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo

RUNNING TIME: 119 minutes

RATING: R for violence and language

WHERE: Bella Bottega 11, Cinema 17, Crossroads 8, East Valley 13, Everett 9, Factoria, Galleria 11, Gateway 8, Grand Cinemas, Issaquah 9, Kirkland Parkplace 6, Longston Place 14, Majestic Bay, Marysville Cinema 14, Metro, Monroe 12, Mountlake 9, Oak Tree, Pacific Place, Parkway Plaza 12, Valley Drive-in, Woodinville 12.

GRADE: B+

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The dynamism of "Collateral," however, comes from Jamie Foxx, the former comedian most often cast for his verbal dexterity and flip attitude. Like Cruise, he's cast against type. Unlike Cruise, he shows the full range of his acting chops as Max, a 12-year "temporary" L.A. cabbie who picks up Cruise's icy killer, Vincent.

Straight-up and well centered, Max is just a bystander who fumbles and stumbles to stay alive as Vincent turns him into an unwilling accomplice to his five assignments. While Vincent ingratiates himself with his disarming gift of glibness and, more curiously, becomes fiercely protective when his hostage is bullied by a corrupt dispatcher, Foxx makes his desperation palpable as acquiescent fear transforms into terrified defiance and confrontation.

Director Mann is the reigning king of crime movie professionalism. His characters are the best at what they do; consummate professionals with a romantic criminal code. That is surely what attracted Mann (who usually writes his own films) to this clever but familiar script.

The plot has all the calculation of a high-concept Hollywood pitch, and the dialogue is full of Tarantino-lite stories that jab the film with inoculations of character. Mann brings to vivid life a routine subplot involving a cagey LAPD undercover officer (Mark Ruffalo), but it ultimately fizzles out in the obligatory mano-a-mano trajectory.

Where Mann makes it his own is in his sharp, clean execution, visceral action scenes, and images saturated in the hyperintense colors of the neon and florescent night (shot with a hand-held, high-definition video camera). There are no action-hero leaps of fantasy by our hero Max and no elaborate supervillain gimmicks by Vincent, and the few contrivances are forgivable under Mann's intense direction.

Cruise is completely convincing as a one-man strike force: no wasted movement, no panicked indecision and nary a flicker of feeling as he calmly sites and executes his targets while chaos erupts around him. Cruise never manages to suggest the man under the cold-blooded professional, but Mann turns his limited range and cinematic charisma into a memorable performance. Whatever you may say about Cruise, the man takes direction well.

Sean Axmaker is a movie reviewer and free-lance film writer based in Seattle. He can be reached via e-mail at seanax@hotmail.com.