STRONG racial drama

Rating: 9/10 (8 April 2006)

Story about two days in the life of various characters in LA. There's a rich couple (Sandra Bullock and Brendan Fraser) who have their car stolen by two black men. There's Don Cheadle playing a police detective with partner Jennifer Esposito--he has a junkie mother and a criminal brother. Matt Dillon plays a VERY racist cop with horrified partner Ryan Phillippe. Loretta Devine plays a black health insurance worker who has to deal with Dillon. A middle Eastern couple has their store looted by a gang who think they're Arabs. Terence Howard plays a man whose wife is sexually (sort of) assaulted by Dillon--who did it because he's black. There's also a Latino repairman mixed in this. These stories all start up apart and slowly converge together by the end.
The movie is strong--the dialogue pulls no punches and ethic slurs are commonly used BUT it is necessary for the the integrity of the story. The movie is (of course) anti-racist and anti-gun--the NRA must HATE this movie. With the sole exception of Fraser the cast is great. Everybody explodes--especially Bullock (in a GREAT scene), Dillon, Phillippe and Howard. I only give this a 9 because, towards the end, the plotting becomes clumsy and there are way too many unlikely situations. Still worth catching.
Now--as for the Oscar controversy saying that this stole the Oscar from "Brokeback Mountain". Not really. (For the record, I'm a gay man). "Brokeback" was long, slow, boring and depressing. Also some Academy members said (AFTER the awards) that they hadn't seen "Brokeback" and had no intention of watching a gay love story. Also "Crash" was simply a better movie. Still I don't think it deserved an Academy Award for Best Picture--it's not THAT good. But it didn't steal it from "Brokeback".