Crash is a car-wreck of a movie

Rating: 2/10 (25 August 2006)

Crash strikes me as a movie devised purely as an Oscar-nabbing vehicle. I found the constant onslaught of racist outbursts and histrionics from the various characters just too over-the-top. Having never been to L.A., I can't comment on whether this is an accurate depiction of everyday tension there, however I simply found the situations that director Paul Haggis has concocted overly contrived, tiresome and improbable. Subtle he ain't, and that appears to be his intention.
The intersecting characters/story-lines approach has been done before, and in far-superior films, most notably Robert Altman's "Shortcuts". I found two scenes in particular utterly ruined this movie: First, the coincidental nick-of-time arrival of scum-bag cop Matt Dillon to gallantly rescue Thandie Newton, was beyond "clumsy plot device" status. It's as if Haggis has taken a cocktail party conversation far too literally: "Yes, that Matt Dillon character may be a corrupt racist, but given the chance, he wouldn't hesitate to risk his own life to pull a woman from a burning car". Gosh, wasn't it awfully convenient that there was such a burning car (which happened to have Thandie Newton in it) the very next day to prove this? I felt truly embarrassed for Haggis by this scene. Are we supposed to understand that this is an allegory, is too fantastic to actually occur, and that this is Haggis' ham-fisted way of making a point about people's duality?
The other high cringe factor scene is Terrence Howard as the successful television director who gets pushed too far, and winds up in a stand-off with LA cops. OK, so he's had a frightening and humiliating episode. This is presumably enough to push him over the edge and go from level-headed TV professional one day, to suicidal, gun-brandishing desperado the next? Sorry, I don't buy it. (Terrence Howard is great in other films, such as Hustle and Flow).
To be fair, I think Haggis' subject matter is crucial and definitely requires examination. His intent (other than Oscar-related) is noble; however his sledge-hammer execution is inept and wholly unsatisfying. In the end, I found myself cringing twice - once after sitting through this movie, and again when it won the best picture Oscar.