Review: Crash (2004)
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A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2005 David N. Butterworth
**1/2 (out of ****)
Cultures collide in "Crash," an ensemble piece set in Los Angeles and
featuring, among others, Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon,
Jennifer Esposito, William Fitchner, Brendan Fraser, Nona Gaye,
Terrence Dashon Howard, Thandie Newton, Ryan Phillippe, Lorenz Tate,
and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges.
It's a big cast and a (largely) competent one, with screenwriter Paul
Haggis ("Million Dollar Baby") pulling them all together in this, his
directing debut.
This multifaceted film introduces us to a variety of racially and
ethnically diverse stereotypes many of whom are linked, and/or
affected, by the car crash that opens the film, as we witness the
events that led up to the accident, starting with the L.A.P.D.
detective (Cheadle) leading the investigation (and sleeping with his
Hispanic partner, played by Esposito, although he's not exactly sure of
her ethnicity).
Then there's a white socialite (Bullock) and her District Attorney
husband (Fraser) who have their Lincoln Navigator stolen at gunpoint by
a pair of petty black crooks (Tate and Bridges). And the rookie cop
(Phillippe) whose bigoted partner (Dillon) pulls over another black
Navigator for a moving violation and humiliates/abuses its occupants,
an affluent African-American television director (Howard) and his light-
skinned wife (Newton). And an Iranian storeowner who seeks revenge on
a Latino locksmith after his store is robbed.
These disparate storylines, each with its underlying tensions of racial
disharmony and volatility, wax, wane, and intertwine, sometimes
effectively, other times a little too interdependent on coincidence and
the kinds of conclusions that people of every race jump to at one time
or another.
"Crash" shuns political correctness with an enthusiasm rarely observed
in modern cinema: its characters say exactly what they think and feel
providing for an uncomfortable but uniquely edgy experience. What
Haggis seems to be saying is that we're all prejudiced in some way or
another no matter how broadminded we like to think we are and his film
takes a look at the aftereffects of that ignorance, of all that bottled-
up resentment and intolerance. Bullock's character Jean sums the
incendiary situation up best when she says she wakes up angry every
morning and doesn't know why. It's because L.A.'s racial boundaries
are so clinically defined, so stringent that the city's rich melting
pot of inhabitants rarely comes into physical contact with one another
on its bustling, dangerous streets.
Ultimately the contrivances of Haggis's plot, with its deliberate
designs to shock and expose the callous cruelty in all of us, hurt the
film. But this "Crash" is still one worth slowing down for if only to
take a curious peek.
--
David N. Butterworth
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