Beyond race, it's about humanity.

Rating: 10/10 (2 January 2007)

Good pacing. Smart AND intelligent. Stark with some successful attempts at subtlety. It's very real but I couldn't shake away the feeling that it's all contrived. Not recommended for people who want tightly packaged stories with actual "endings". Well done loose ends, and I mean that in a positive tone. Not recommended for people at risk for Don Cheadle overdose. Brendan Fraser has come a very long way from George of the Jungle.
Characterization of a group of individuals is always difficult in a movie. Shallow projects are your sterile, inhuman or superhero films like The Brady Bunch, X-men, LXG, Hellboy and don't forget Captain Planet & The Planeteers. Although, I enjoyed The Addams Family & Values immensely. At worst, everyone is stereotyped. This happens in cheap horror flicks especially annoying in the comedy-horror-teenage genre, and absolutely abhorring in spoof trash.
BUT.
When effort is placed in the details, when actors don't act like stars and when directors differentiate between reality and commercialism, when a movie is done with just the right amount of human depth, a drizzling of contradiction, a dash of irony and a wide spectrum of attitude... you get a very intellectually stimulating slice of life in less than 2 hours of technology-mediated performance art. The good ones are Identity, The Usual Suspects, St. Elmo's Fire, and a surprising Brit film Love Actually.
Crash makes the list. It makes very strong statements about people that leave you tired. It shows you different personalities who clash and yet the movie effectively breaks away from tradition and allows the audience to identify with any single person in the movie. It is all so complicated. Just like in real life. Everyone has different roles to play. I am both protagonist and antagonist, both victim and guilty. I am a friend, a stranger, a relative, a customer, a significant other, and everything else in between. The movie shows everyone isn't all bad or all good. At some point in your life, you have to choose between good and better, between bad and worse, between instinct and emotion, between pride and more pride, between who you want to be and who you think you are. In the end, the insanely circular mystery that gets me is that even though each individual is different, we are all still human... and though we may all have the same needs, what we do to fulfill those needs are the things that make life so exciting.
Race-related themes bore me, but Crash goes beyond racism. It's not about race, it's about CONFLICT. And, the main reason why most conflicts end ugly is that we let our emotions settle them. I am not saying we should ignore or stop our emotions, no. I think that we should go beyond our instincts, acknowledge our feelings and work on our common goals. The beauty of the film is that it does not draw the line between good and evil. In fact, it removes the concept of these two poles and paints society in indistinct hues with dynamic contrasts. When do you lose your dignity? How can you compromise your values? Do you ever really know what you are capable of doing until you do them? Too many questions, even more possible answers. I can't wait to discuss this movie with someone who's been there, done that and is wanting for more.