Collateral
Vincent is one of cinemas greatest villains. This is Tom Cruise's absolute best performance. He's not fantastical in any way, he's just a man who has disconnected himself from society. To quote the movie Alien he's a survivor unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality. Well, maybe he has different kinds of delusions of morality. I guess. You think you have him figured out as this enlightened Tyler Durden type during the film, yet at the end, he surprises you with a statement that recalls one earlier in the film. Deep down inside he's just as human as Max, with his own insecurities making him a tragic contradiction.
Max's character arc is superb. You don't get something that well developed very often. He has evolved from where he was at the start of the film. You don't normally get that in a hard boiled noir film. Usually the protagonist starts off as a strong, cynical character and doesn't change. Max is a weak but hopeful man and despite the horrors he witnesses, he doesn't ever lose his optimism as a human being. Even when he realises Vincent was right and that his life had been a waste of time, his very next action is born out of a sense of hope. The subtleties Mann uses to show Vincent was the catalyst of Max's evolution, are just as impressive as the beautiful exchanges between the two in the cab. In the scene with Felix, he consciously says phrases that Vincent had used earlier in the film, to save his own ass from being killed, at the end, when he decides to be a hero and try to save Annie, he incapacitates a cop, using a judo move similar to what Vincent was doing in the nightclub and then completely subconsciously quotes Vincent. Though in hindsight it's quite disturbing that it's the Vincent's of the world that lead by example. So go out and take a risk. You never know where you might end up.
5/5
