THREE THOUGHTS:
1) "This is a rare thriller that's as much character study as sound and fury." Also, it's rare that a script 167 pgs. (yes, 167) reads half as long.
2) Action gains depth from character.
I was surprised that the script dared (dared!) break away from the 5 assassinations ...and make a pit stop to visit Max's mom in the hospital? I loved it.
Mann is working in a genre with "Collateral," as he was in "Heat" (1995), but he deepens genre through the kind of specific detail that would grace a straight drama. Consider a scene where Vincent asks (or orders) Max to take him to the hospital where Max's mother is a patient. The mother is played by Irma P. Hall (the old lady in the Coens' "The Lady-Killers"), and she makes an instant impression, as a woman who looks at this man with her son, and intuits that everything might not be right, and keeps that to herself.
These scenes are so much more interesting than the standard approach of the shifty club owner or the comic-relief Big Mama. Mann allows dialogue into the kind of movie that many directors now approach as wall-to-wall action. Action gains a lot when it happens to convincing individuals, instead of to off-the-shelf action figures. - Roger Ebert (my emphasis)3) Why does this hospital scene work here?
First, the more we learn about character, the higher the stakes.
- ex. Max's mom has been bothering the dispatcher because Max has not shown up for his nightly visit. Max is a dutiful, henpecked son.
- ex. Vincent makes them go because he thinks changes in routine are suspicious.
Second, more stakes = more leverage, as Vincent learns below:
ex. INT. HOSPITAL ROOM, LOWER FLOOR - MAX - NIGHT
MAX: Hey, mom. How many times do I have to ask you not to do that?
IDA: Do what?
MAX: Talk about me like...I'm...not...in the room, here.
IDA (to Vincent): What's he sayin'?
VINCENT: Ida, he says he's standing right here. In the room. Here.
IDA (to Max): Yesss, you are, honey. (back to Vincent) He's sensitive.
VINCENT: I know. But I'm sure you're proud of him.
IDA (directed at Max): Of course I'm proud. You know, he started with nothing. Look at him today. Here. Vegas. Reno...
Vincent looks at Max...squirming under the exposure.
MAX: Mom, Vincent's not interested. (to Vincent) Let's go.
VINCENT: No. I am interested.
IDA: What's your name, again?
VINCENT: Vincent...
MAX: I came to see you. I saw you. You look fine. Let's go.
He's kissed her and wants to get out of there.
IDA: Limousine companies.
VINCENT: Yeah?
IDA He drives famous people around, you know?
VINCENT: Limousine companies? What an achievement...
Max heads for the door...
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I really like the character stuff because stakes deepen layers, which is emotionally enriching (vs. non-stop wall-to-wall action that can be emotionally numbing).
Collateral (2004)(8/24/03 draft w/revisions)
by Stuart Beattie, with revisions by Frank Darabont, Michael Mann
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