Intermission: 'Collateral' thrills via characters, tension

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Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.|ret||ret||tab|

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Michael Mann was the first director to bring Hollywood's favorite sociopath Dr. Hannibal Lecter to the big screen. His 1986 film, "Manhunter," was based on the Thomas Harris book "Red Dragon," a tome that introduced and made a bizarre legend of a serial killer/cannibal. |ret||ret||tab|

After the success of Jonathan Demme's "The Silence of the Lambs," "Red Dragon" was presented on film again in 2002 (Brett Ratner's "Red Dragon"). But Mann's flashy style and gritty approach in "Manhunter" proves to be a better interpretation of the book.|ret||ret||tab|

Mann has also directed a number of noteworthy films that are known as much for their style as for their subject matter. |ret||ret||tab|

I thought "Last of the Mohicans" was somewhat overblown, but I admit to being in the minority with that opinion. It was a commercial and critical success. "Thief," from 1981, remains a classic of the "criminal as hero" genre, and "Ali" was an impeccable character study of arguably the greatest athlete and personality of the 20th century, heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali.|ret||ret||tab|

Mann's style is always jarring and sometimes looks like a big-screen version of a television production. |ret||ret||tab|

That approach works well in his latest film, "Collateral," a thriller that derives most of its thrills from finely executed character development that lays the foundation for the action sequences one expects from this genre.|ret||ret||tab|

"Collateral" is filled with action, but much of the tension is brought about through intense moments between two men one a cab driver, the other his passenger.|ret||ret||tab|

Jamie Foxx, best known for his comedic turns on TV's "In Living Color" and in movies such as "Booty Call," shows a flair for drama here as the philosophical cab driver Max Durocher. |ret||ret||tab|

Tom Cruise plays the character Vincent, who can only be described as a man of quiet resolve. |ret||ret||tab|

What his resolve entails is fairly unsettling.|ret||ret||tab|

Max's evening starts on a positive note as his first fare is a smart and sexy federal prosecutor named Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith) who responds to Max's insights into life. |ret||ret||tab|

She gives him her card and the viewer realizes that this being Hollywood something is going to come of this later in the script.|ret||ret||tab|

Before Max leaves the building where he's dropped off Annie, his next fare knocks on the cab's window. |ret||ret||tab|

Vincent looks like a high-profile yuppie businessman and tells Max he has five stops to make in L.A. and then has to get back to the airport in the morning. "Uh-uh ... this cab's not for hire. That's the rules," Max tries to explain. The hundred dollar bills Vincent flashes eventually change Max's mind.|ret||ret||tab|

At the first stop, a body falls out of a window onto Max's cab. |ret||ret||tab|

He doesn't realize the implications of this until Vincent returns. Then it becomes painfully clear.|ret||ret||tab|

Director Mann sets up the film as a series of stories that could be easily translated into a TV serial.|ret||ret||tab|

Each incident stands on its own, but adds to the unity of the whole.|ret||ret||tab|

I usually take exception to films that are blatantly "episodic" and Mann makes this more obvious with his histrionic use of background music but here it seems to work.|ret||ret||tab|

The most poignant vignette is when Vincent directs Max to head to a jazz club. Vincent explains to Max, who doesn't care for or know much about the idiom, why he enjoys the music so much. |ret||ret||tab|

At the end of the scene, they are talking to the trumpet player/club owner who tells a great story about the night Miles Davis came into the club and jammed. The scenes that follow are the most chilling in the film.|ret||ret||tab|

The title seems to be derived from a scene where Vincent and Max go to the hospital to visit Max's mom, played by the exuberant Irma P. Hall from the Coen brothers' "The Lady Killers."|ret||ret||tab|

After this encounter, Vincent finds it unnecessary to handcuff Max or worry that he will try to escape. We in the audience can understand perfectly.|ret||ret||tab|

The best thing about this thriller is Mann's and writer Stuart Beattie's adept character development. There is an obligatory big action scene in the third act, but it's the personalities involved and their interaction that brings the intensity to "Collateral." |ret||ret||tab|

It's a film that reminds us that action/thrillers needn't be judged by the number of cars wrecked or bullets fired. |ret||ret||tab|

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