Flawed but Watchable

Rating: Null/10 (16 November 2007)

Crash is a brief exploration of racism, prejudice, coincidence, cause and effect, action reaction and latent fear. Though the situations seem exaggerated, most work well in the screenplay. The film doesn't necessarily need to be a real portrayal of racism in America but it's more Haggis's perspective on the subject that raises the question whether racial stereotype exist in every human being. The title itself is a metaphoric representation of the percussion caused by the characters' stereotype and latent fear. Due to the fact that this comment contains spoilers, I'd recommend those who haven't seen the film to stop reading further for now as the film has some interesting twists that are best watched without expectations.
Set over a 2-day period in a Los Angelos, 'Crash' tells the story of a bunch of LA dwellers who's lives unexpectedly 'collide'. As the film proceeds towards the end, we see each of the characters going through a transformation. In a twist of events, we see the racist cop saving the black woman whom he sexually molested and the 'good' cop killing the black guy.
While I had mentioned that most of the exaggerated situations work well for the screenplay, many others seem contrived. Therefore I can, to an extent, understand why to some people 'Crash' felt like a forced in-your-face message about racism. I don't see the necessity of so many subplots. If Haggis was trying to include characters of every single race, then he's missed out a few. The reason why I mention it is because at times it appears though as if in he wanted to tell something about all the different races in America and as a consequence, some subplots seem forced e.g. the Chinese man and the illegal immigrants. Some editing could have been used and some scenes required fine tuning.
The impressive cinematography balance the mood of the situations and characters. The closeups provide a deeper look into the characters psyche through the actors' facial expressions and body language. The soundtrack provides further support. The daytime and the nighttime brilliantly contrast with one another.
Dialogues are most of the time strong and they make the scenes effectively stand out. In one scene Dillon tells Phillipe 'You're not who you think you are' which is later reflected in Phillipe's character's action and in another wonderful scene Bullock tells her friend about her discovery of the root of her problems which didn't had nothing to do with the carjack trauma. Then there's another brilliant scene outside the television studio that had an impactive dialogue between Thandie Newton and Terence Howard. However, some of the talk appear very pretentious and...forced (excuse me for using this word so many times). 'Crash' lacks subtleness. Everything is loud and in your face.
'Crash' boasts of a marvelous ensemble cast that includes Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Bahar Soomekh, Brendan Fraser, Chris Bridges, Loretta Devine, Jennifer Esposito, Thandie Newton, Ryan Phillipe, Brendan Fraser and Terence Howard. Most of the actors perform excellently. However, even though a majority of the characters are reasonably well written as flawed human beings (which is one of the things I liked), a few appear one dimensional and underdeveloped. For example, it could be argued that the Iranian store owner seems like a caricature that supports the stereotype about Middle Easterners being rash decision makers. 'Crash' lacks subtleness. Everything is loud and in your face.
The flaws were more apparent to me during my second viewing, yet, in spite of it all, 'Crash' still is watchable. I don't think Haggis was depicting racism to exist in every single human being but perhaps his intention was more to show how people have certain stereotypes that make them think a certain way. If everybody in real life really was like the characters in 'Crash' then we're all in deep *beep* but i don't think Haggis's intention was to portray this or otherwise.