Crash (2005)

One of my biggest complaints about America (the excessive government aside) is the people living in it. Empathy is a dying virtue. In Crash, a detective begins with a touching line on how bad this situation has grown in L.A. Despite a city that is home to over two million, people fail to ever interact with one another and even intentionally put up barriers. Crash has strong creative talents behind it and its message, but its efforts are often misguided and unrestrained.

Crash begins as detectives are called in to investigate a murder. Before the victim is revealed though, a flash back of the day before ensues. The colorful cast of characters includes two detectives having a romantic affair, a district attorney and his wife, a locksmith, a store owner, a rookie cop and his experienced partner, and a TV producer and his wife. Phew. What a list. Add to that the various ethnic backgrounds. Everyone is connected to someone else in ways they are initially unaware of and during the course of the film they will essentially "crash" into one another with mixed results.

 

Smarts

73%

One can certainly admire the craftmanship behind Crash. The introduction has a beautiful use of colored lights with a soft lens that makes them appear almost as christmas ornaments. Like life in the city, everything is just a distant blur. But it is the editing that helps unite these distant stories. As one door slams behind a person in anger, another scene starts with the same idea of a door being slammed in anger. But what makes Crash particularly a joy to watch is its remarkable cast. It is the actors that will provide the greatest stirring of emotions. First, you have the experienced actors that have been quite active lately like Don Cheadle. You have other actors that have been in hibernation such as Sandra Bullock who I've always liked. Finally, there are suprise new comers like rap artist Ludacris who proved me wrong in my original notion that he could not act. My bet is that Crash will provide a foothold to the ones who have not seen many roles lately and will help the new ones rise in their careers.

Bigotry itself is far too diverse a topic to summarize in one movie. Never mind differences in gender, creed, sexual orientation, or physical disability; race is the intended topic here. The movie has courage to strive towards the subject without a second thought. Its willingness to discuss touch material in a blunt, unrefined manner is a bit of a rarity. Today, it’s hard to get a straight answer about these issues without everyone worrying about the repercussions of not sounding politically correct. Such discussions are usually formulated very carefully either to appeal to masses or drained of anything that could be even imagined as offensive. Crash shows a world where the people who may be victims in one scene are the same people adding to the cycle of anger in the next.

Its frankness is not without problems. Where Crash goes wrong is a complete lack of subtlety at every possible moment, something that I am beginning to mind more than I used to. It can be thought of as condescending when a director feels the need to spoon feed his audience his point time after time. Take a scene in the first five minutes of the movie when the detectives have experienced a car accident. A Hispanic detective gets out and begins yelling at an Asian woman who collided with her. Within seconds (literally) they begin making racial insults to one another. Never mind that the detective could be reported to internal affairs, she makes her remarks loud and proud. Of course, subtlety is not meant to exist during serious conversations that actually do discuss types of segregation, but whenever there are supposed racial tensions characters are made to express themselves directly without any hesitation.

People are allowed to have beliefs, no matter what these beliefs might be. It is problematic in this screenplay because it intends to explore the evils of racism but turns to characters who do not really believe in racism at their core. Most of these people, as mentioned earlier, are simply bitter; they are put in a situation with people of a different skin color and they lash out at them not because they look different, but simply to ventilate at anyone who will hear them. However, perhaps the problem with such a critique is the fact that racism is not something rooted in reason. The characters are relatively smart people and it comes off as somewhat suspicious that their anger can be so misplaced.

 

Popcorn

76%

There is an unexpected sense of humor brought to Crash that helps break the ice of some of the hot-button issues. One of my personal favorites includes the two detectives in the act of sex and a certain response the man gives on the phone to a caller. This leads to his partner leaving and continuing the streak of anger; he makes a joke about the Latinos that seals his fate for that night. A couple of black men are arguing over whether or not a certain white lady happened to be afraid of them. One goes on to be bitter about the fact that she may have acted as though she had something to be afraid of despite the fact that they are the only two black men on a street filled with white people and perhaps they should have been the ones who were afraid. After that conversation is over, they point a gun at a couple and steal their car. Ironic isn't it? Funny, but it's not The Chapelle Show or anything.

Many will complain that everything in here is melodramatic. Others will complain of the manipulative direction. I mind neither. Walking out with my dad, he joked that the most realistic part of the film was that it snowed in L.A. The screenplay is essentially a contained experiment, trying to bring to life characters with less than desirable traits by pitting them in parallel, interconnected situations, hoping for the best. By the end of the movie, we see past the bitterness and false appearances of the characters and catch a glimpse of their true essence. Some characters are fortunate enough to change for the better, while others are given new obstacles. But like the rest of the movie, these developments are a double-edged sword in regards to the film's delivery of its message. There are so many characters and some play only the smallest of roles crunched in a two-hour movie. Most seem thrown into scenarios rather than carefully and delicately situated.

 

Final

The trailers speak the truth as it tells us we are growing apart from one another. Its come to the point where we need online dating services just for people to simply ask someone out on a date. Though I am not one to talk, as I’ve used them plenty of times myself. Crash is willing to say what few are willing to say. Paul Haggis, screenwriter of last year's big Oscar winner Million Dollar Baby shows he certainly has talent with crafting stories themselves. Crash is his directorial debut, however, and he makes the mistake of overdirecting this attempt like so many before him and having his themes and the story's heart become lost in the effort. It is a pity it does not achieve the status of masterpiece because its cast and director are so wonderfully talented in many ways. With a little more experience however, Haggis might learn to manage his vision better.  If that happens, I know we will see greatness from him.