"Grand Canyon" meets "Short Cuts"  thought provoking button-pusher for the 21st Century.

Rating: 10/10 (9 May 2005)

CRASH (2005) **** Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser, Ryan Phillippe, Jennifer Esposito, Thandie Newton, Terrence Howard, Ludicrous, Larenz Tate, Keith David, Loretta Devine, William Fichtner, Michael Pena, Shaun Toub, Bahar Soomekh, Nona Gaye, Bruce Kirby, Tony Danza, Ashlyn Sanchez, Beverly Todd. (Dir: Paul Haggis)
"Grand Canyon" meets "Short Cuts"  thought provoking button-pusher for the 21st Century.
Paul Haggis , Oscar nominated for his screenplay adaptation for "Million Dollar Baby" this year and in his directorial debut proves a force to be reckoned with, with his provocative, hot button topic of racism running rampant in Los Angeles as a metaphor for the rest of the nation: a boiling pot potboiler.
The common thread of good and bad people interlaced with class, social status and race relations come to a head with several vignettes of an atypical 24 hour period in LA where a too-bothered for a commitment or relationship police detective named Graham (Cheadle, who also produced) is straddling his affair with a fellow cop (the sexy Esposito), a Latina who has little patience for his indifference as they investigate a cop-related shooting wherein an undercover cop has killed another undercover cop in a car shooting which leads to a politically motivated fuse lit by the district attorney (Fraser) - who has been recently car-jacked with his high-strung bitchy wife (Bullock in a nice turn from her usual America's Sweetheart display) who can barely tolerate their Hispanic maid  attempting to avoid any disclosure of the embarrassing crime by rewarding a civil servant of color to win him votes.
Meanwhile a bigoted cop (Dillon in one of his best performances) and his rookie partner (Phillippe, ditto) have just stopped a Navigator that matches the APB about the car-jacking which results in his harassing a buppie couple (the amazing Howard and Newton) who have been engaging in fellatio to make matters worse.
In the mix are an Iranian shopkeeper (Toub), his daughter (the striking Soomekh), a Mexican locksmith (Pena), two black wannabe gangstas (rapper Ludicrous and Tate), a by-the-book black police captain (David) and a balls-out racist publicist (Fichtner).
Haggis does a commendable skillful job with his tricky screenplay (co-written with Robert Moresco) and allows his fine ensemble cast free reign by allowing enough rope to twist and intertwine until the jigsaw puzzle begins to fall into place in how each little story relates to the other. His dialogue rings smart, true and all-too familiar with wit, irony and humanity ringing throughout like a clarion call to arms in its scathing, no punches held profile in how one human being can treat another without realizing they too are being profiled or worse misunderstood due to pre-conceived borderline racist beliefs and stereotypes. The most difficult is the good-hearted, well meaning but seen-it-all Dillon whose brimming with sarcasm encounter with a beaurocrat (Devine) when he is attempting to seek help for his very sick father (Kirby) and his barely concealed hatred spilling over with seemingly justifiable anger. It's a difficult role  a prick with good intentions  yet Dillon does so with a somewhat agile turn.
The remainder of the cast is all equally good  Cheadle has some fine moments as anticipated with his stillness and disbelief; Phillippe as a green cop who thinks he can control situations beyond his grasp  particularly with his two encounters with Howard (easily one of the best working actors on screen today) a TV director whose light-skinned wife Newton also show her skills to be remarkably subtle and the heart-in-your-throat moment of an irate Toub facing Pena (who has a truly wonderful moment previously with his daughter, the adorable Sanchez, giving her an invisible cloak of safety that brings tears to the eyes) at his home over a grievous misunderstanding.
Haggis has crafted a combination of what Lawrence Kasdan attempted to explain in "Grand Canyon" by a quasi-Altman "Short Cuts' approach  mixing characters up in situations that are universal yet oddly alien to those he depicts experiencing. A truly damning indictment of America.