Taxi

Taxi arrives as a comedy directed by Tim Story, and its first strength is a clear sense of purpose. Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon give Taxi a recognisable human centre before the larger mechanics take over. The central situation in Taxi comes into focus without a long explanation: A mouthy and feisty taxicab driver has hot tips for a green and inept cop set on solving a string of New York City bank robberies committed by a quartet of female Brazilian bank robbers. Across its 1h 37m running time, Tim Story keeps Taxi uncertain about tone and dramatic emphasis.

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Visually, Taxi is most persuasive when performer rhythm guides attention without becoming an attraction separate from the drama. Twentieth Century Fox supports Taxi with performer rhythm, giving individual scenes a shared design logic. The France production character of Taxi is clearest in its use of comic timing built around character to make place feel consequential. Even during its busiest moments, Taxi benefits from an edit and sound mix that protect the immediate emotional line.

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The central idea running through Taxi concerns embarrassment, status and the gap between confidence and reality. Queen Latifah gives that idea a human scale, allowing Taxi to remain accessible even when its world becomes larger. By returning to the central character, Taxi turns theme into a source of pressure rather than a message waiting to be delivered. The handling by Tim Story lets Taxi leave a little interpretive room, which gives its better scenes an afterlife.

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The plot of Taxi is built around the uneasy relationship between New York City and Brazilian. For Queen Latifah, that relationship gives Taxi an emotional objective stronger than simple forward motion. The screenplay associated with Luc Besson lets the central character reshape the direction of Taxi in stages. Although the treatment of an important relationship could be sharper, Taxi never entirely loses the thread established at the beginning.

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Taxi benefits from Tim Story being uncertain about tone and dramatic emphasis about what each sequence needs to accomplish. Instead of making every beat equally loud, Tim Story lets Taxi create contrast between pressure and release. Isolated moments suggest a more compelling version throughout Taxi, with the strongest decisions feeling connected to character rather than display. It is still fair to say that Taxi suffers because events happen without gathering enough dramatic force, but the problem remains contained.

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Taxi relies heavily on Queen Latifah, and the performance responds with enough specificity to carry changes in mood. The contribution of Jimmy Fallon gives Taxi a useful counterweight instead of merely echoing the lead. Gisele Bündchen makes the smaller exchanges in Taxi count, often through timing rather than emphatic dialogue. Tim Story understands that Taxi becomes more persuasive when the cast can imply feelings before the script names them.

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Taken as a whole, Taxi is a film for only the most curious members of its likely audience for comedy fans who respond to personality and timing. Taxi leaves its strongest impression through performer rhythm, the work of Queen Latifah and a clear understanding of tone. The limitations around how events happen without gathering enough dramatic force should be acknowledged, but they do not erase what Taxi does well. I would return to Taxi for its personality and its willingness to connect genre pleasure with recognisable feeling.