“Virtuoso”: rating 4.4 out of 5, one of Tom Cruise’s best films returns to the cinema after 20 years!

Even if he suffered a bit of a slump between 2006 and 2008 due to the semi-flop Mission Impossible III and the end of his contract with Paramount, Tom Cruise is still there. And he continues to make each new film an event, even if we can regret that his career, as solid and spectacular as it is today, has lost what made it so interesting twenty years ago: taking risks.

Not necessarily physical, as he’s been doing it regularly since filming Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol on the world’s tallest tower. We’re talking more about acting when he allowed directors like Stanley Kubrick (Eyes Wide Shut), Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia) or Steven Spielberg (Minority Report, War of the Worlds) to push him out of his comfort zone.

Not forgetting Michael Mann, who in 2004 offered him one of the rare villain roles in Collateral. An urban thriller enhanced by the fact that the director of Heat uses digital cameras to capture the city of Los Angeles at night. It’s time to roll into the night, in which Tom Cruise looks like a lone wolf with gray hair matching his suit.

In front of Michael Mann’s (digital) camera, the star plays Vincent. A killer who happens to be in the back seat of Max (Jamie Foxx), a taxi driver who becomes his unwitting accomplice when he witnesses a murder at the first stop. And his long, well-paid race to become mortal and a twilight journey that only ends at dawn.

Maximum investment…

As it celebrates its 20th anniversary, the film is being re-released in our cinemas. In the restored version, which will only emphasize its cold beauty and its aesthetics, it is certainly less revolutionary today than in 2004, but still just as fascinating. In the opus, which, if it does not have the scale of warmth, reveals itself as a false modesty and remains among the peaks of its author. Whether it’s stretching time until we lose sight of our targets, or picking up the pace, like in the fantastic nightclub sequence.

It doesn’t matter, the plot is simple and there are a few big strings along the way. We are faced here with a pure exercise in staging. With a fully invested actor, as usual, who has learned to kill a man with his bare hands, a knife and a gun, and to identify places to escape as quickly as possible. before following one of the art directors to strap a post to his back disguised as a FedEx courier.

…and an unintentional stunt for Tom Cruise

At the time, Jamie Foxx seemed to steal the spotlight when her character became less passive and took on the killer. Twenty years later, the Oscar winner’s performance as Ray is still going strong, but Tom Cruise remains the most impressive. Because it stands out in his filmography and reminds us of the wonderful actor that he is, in addition to being eminently daring.

An aspect that is also present in collateral. Not just during fight scenes, shooting guns and running, its a guilty pleasure. Because we also have to factor in that completely unintentional fall when Vincent breaks a window with a wheelchair and jumps through the debris, protecting his face…landing on said chair and giving us a memorable fall.

We don’t know if the lifeguards on set felt sick while on stage. But this unintentional cleverness, in spite of itself, matches the realistic and authentic side required by Michael Mann, who decided to keep the shot in the edit for this reason. If you catch the feature film in theaters (or its rebroadcast on Arte on May 12), know that this drop was not planned.

We want you to dive headfirst into this feverish nocturnal journey that has not lost its power as it prepares to blow out twenty candles, quite the contrary. And even today it remains one of the best films of its director and its star.