Very often I have films sitting in my queue for so long that I forget why I ever put them on it. I knew going in this one that it’s a thriller or action movie starring Tom Cruise but little more than that. But after the usually patient pacing of the opening sequence of Cruise in a taxi literally cruising through the city at night, I wondered who the director is and of course it’s Michael Mann. That in of itself is a good reason for wanting to watch this.
Max is a taxi driver in Los Angeles who picks up a smartly dressed fare, Vincent, at the airport. When Max impresses him by predicting precisely how long a trip would take, Vincent offers him a great deal of money to drive him around for the rest of the evening as he travels to a few locations. However while Max is waiting on the street as Vincent makes his first stop, a dead body falls from above and crashes onto his taxi. It turns out that Vincent is an assassin who is going around killing people and he threatens Max into helping him hide the body in the trunk of his car and continue doing his rounds. Max does try to resist and attempts to get help from passersby but is dissuaded when Vincent demonstrates that he is perfectly willing to kill anyone who intervenes. Meanwhile the police is slow to realize what is going on and initially think that Max is the killer but one detective in particular believes that Max is being coerced by someone else.
This film is less stylized than Mann’s early works and hence much closer in its esthetics to other modern Hollywood thrillers. However this film still exhibits an insouciant languor and insistence on telling the story at a measured pace that marks it out being different from pure adrenaline-pumping blockbusters. The opening scene of Max ferrying a woman for example is unhurried and unmarred by any anxiety of the audience being bored. The film takes its time to let us get to know Max, soak up the atmosphere of the city at night and build up sympathy for his character before his life gets up-ended by Vincent’s intrusion. Only then is the sense of urgency is slowly ratcheted up over the course of the film to end in explosive violence. Of course the visuals still pop, the tightly controlled pacing throws in unexpected twists that alter the trajectory of the film at key moments and the development of Max’s character and later that of Vincent never stops. While slow at times, the film is never complacent and avoids falling into predictable patterns even as it builds up to an inevitable confrontation. Mann proves himself once again to be a master of the action-thriller and it is such a pleasure just to admire the craftsmanship of this film.
The film doesn’t quite work perfectly. Watching Tom Cruise play against type as Vincent is refreshing but his innate affability still shines through even as he tries to look menacing. He just comes across as being too friendly to be a psychologically damaged killer. Also, it’s great to watch Max and Vincent psychoanalyze each other and have Max gain the resolve to break past his complacency to act decisively. But seeing him transform quite abruptly from passive hostage to action movie hero still seems like a bit of a stretch. Still there are relatively minor problems and other such problems stem from the plot’s innate need to keep the two characters together no matter what. The real originality of this film is that it is kind of a buddy movie, except that they are mutually antagonistic even as they develop a kind of rapport with each other.
On the whole, this one feels more like a mainstream commercial film rather than an art film like Thief or Manhunter, but it’s proof positive that one can certainly make excellent thriller films for the market with bankable stars without compromising on intelligence. It’s quite gratifying to note that it seemed to do quite well at the cinemas even without having to resort to gratuitous explosions or sex appeal.