Good execution, but cannot rescue overwrought ideas

Rating: 6/10 (9 April 2007)

That 'Crash' has earned tremendous stature and audience admiration is a given. To dismiss these accolades -- including the BP Oscar -- may indeed seem hubris. Perhaps the IMDb readers might even see a reactionary review behind all of this, an inability to accept race realities when held up to my face in a very, very large convex mirror.
This isn't the case.
"Crash" views race through the wrong-end of the telescope: by staring at the business end, everything seems small yet intensely magnified, co-ordinated in microscopic ways in which features and elements all combine together. The crew behind 'Crash' should have flipped the lens around and take a broader picture.
I start by acknowledging the better treatment done on the same subjects by worthier and more inventive films. For example, 'Changing Lanes' covers pretty much the same territory (and could sue for plagiarism on a few counts) . . . chance encounters, released racial intentions, revenge tragedy, class struggle, and so forth. 'Changing Lanes' succeeded by having a more compelling plot and a tighter focus on two primary characters. Samuel L. Jackson's speech in the pub about his idea of a Tiger Woods commercial had more to say about African-Americans than all of 'Crash's' pseudo-meditations on hiphop culture combined. And what about 'Traffic'? Another panorama plot joining together disparate elements in search of a cure for the common cold of prejudice and drugs? Again, a film of wider premise, more nuanced readings of state and society, and a more profound picture of how prejudice connects to the economics of greed and destruction.
'Crash' desperately wants to outdo everything that comes before it. It wants to be 'Magnolia' and 'Mississippi Burning' at the same time, as well as out-spiking Spike Lee. Quite frankly, and I know people will get more annoyed here, but I thought the plot entirely contrived and manipulative. In its quest to be morally correct, it turns the reality of racism into a situational tour de force in which characters aren't people, but prejudices waiting to happen. Car accident. Do you immediately get out and shout racial epithets? Maybe. Maybe not. See Erik Lundegaard MSNBC article about how 'Crash' turns the subtleties of racial aggression into a children's book of cause and effect and turnabout is fair play. And, at the end of the day, racism can just disappear if, like Sandra Bullock, you have a Hispanic maid who's nice to you after you sprain your ankle. Ah, the solution at last!
Let's not get into the racism of this anti-racist movie: apparently Asians are all human smugglers and chow mein eaters.
And let's not question why a movie, so eager to depict the reality of gritty LA bigotry, has to assemble a multimillion dollar cast. Apparently we, as an audience, like our racists to have handsome air-brushed faces. Apparently, in a city as large as LA, the same cops turn up at the same traffic accidents. At least in 'Magnolia', the cinematography invites the audience to suspend belief as the jigsaw puzzle falls into place like tetris blocks. In 'Crash', it's just contrived. Jammed guns and fateful rear-enders.
And why can't we have a movie about racism that doesn't have gun fights, car explosions?
It seems to me that racism is real, and Paul Higgins has much to say about it . . . (do we need to get into a discussion about this all came about because his Porsche was carjacked? There's a study in the reality of class and prejudice right there . . .) Who can fault his intentions? I don't. This is a fine enough movie with plenty to say for itself. It is, however, an act of prejudice in itself that it won BP and displaced worthier, far gritter candidates, such as 'Brokeback Mountain'. But again that's another story . . .
'Crash' falters when it tries so, so hard to succeed . . . as a definitive statement, as a millennial manifesto of American history . . . as an exemplum and moral tale on the Face of Racism. It simply cannot carry its own self-importance, and the delicacies of such a complicated subject must give way. Race relations become situational conundrums, a venting of feelings, an inappropriate choice of words. But the magical weaving of the cinema will teach them all a lesson.
For a movie about the reality of racism, we end up with a mere diorama of bad language and nastiness, all delivered in the typical Hollywood vernacular.
'Crash', you're the Nobel Peace Prize of films, without the impact or a genuine social consciousness of change. You're a guilt-piece of bewilderment and redemption for suburban homes, their DVD players, and Brinks security systems.