This movie has a look and feel to it that is very specific and unique, especially for its time, and having a guy like Cruise playing this badass hitman guy seems like it could have potentially created some dissonance. Instead, he seamless melds with the tone of the movie and with co-star Jamie Foxx. This is, at times, another one of Cruise’s less verbal roles, and it’s also somewhat less kinetic; he doesn’t do a lot of chasing after guys and making that trademark Tom Cruise running face. Instead, he’s in the back seat of the cab going from place to place, acting much more subtly and restrained than Ethan Hunt or Jack Reacher would.
The subdued nature of the role, and Cruise’s excellence at capturing it, was a contrast to a lot of roles he had been taking previous to Collateral, where they were mostly star vehicles. This one symbolized a recommitment to a less up front but just as important endeavor to fulfill the vision of a real auteurist filmmaker, in this case Michael Mann. One of the pleasures of seeing the roles Tom Cruise takes is that although most of his movies are star vehicles, he’ll occasionally share the spotlight with some other capable players and he’s extremely good working with other talented people in addition to carrying a film basically all by himself.
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