A bit preachy, but still thought-provoking

Rating: 8/10 (21 May 2005)

Twenty minutes into "Crash," I realized none of the characters we'd been introduced to was all that likable. Not one person. They were all racist on some level - from the gun store owner who spews xenophobia in true post-9/11 fashion to the LAPD Detective Ria (Jennifer Esposito), who gets rear-ended at the start of the film by a Chinese driver; from LAPD Officer Ryan (Matt Dillon), who has one of the film's most unsettlingly creepy moments during a bogus traffic stop, to the D.A.'s hysterical wife, Jean (Sandra Bullock), who clearly has race issues.
And I wondered what exactly writers Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco were trying to say.
By the end of the film, their message is clear. This is a movie about the ridiculousness and stupidity of prejudice and intolerance. It doesn't matter whether you're white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Persian, Muslim, Christian or Jew. Prejudice is within all of us and, in this case, comes out in all its ugly glory. This is life in the 21st century melting pot, except our irrational fears and prejudices don't really allow for much melting.
But it's also more than that. "Crash" also is about getting beneath the surface. People are not what they seem. Just when we think we've encountered a slimy S.O.B., he turns around and does something good. And when we meet a wholesome, righteous person, he turns around and shocks us with abhorrent behavior.
Maverick American filmmaker Robert Altman clearly influences Haggis' storytelling style. Haggis weaves all his disparate tales together in Altmanesque fashion. This film borrows its style from "Nashville" (1975) and "Short Cuts" (1993), and even the other Altman-influenced movie, Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia" (1999).
And Haggis does it smoothly. He picks up stories just when they're fading from memory. He ties it all together very well. And, you could argue, a bit too well. Because some of the transitions from one character's tale to another depends a lot on coincidence. In this case, sometimes it's a bit too coincidental that one character would run into another. But it's a conceit I'm willing to buy. Because despite this movie-flaw, "Crash" still pulls us in quite remarkably.
There's nothing needless or wasted in this film. True, you're being pulled in by coincidences, but that's also the film's charm. The stories occasionally get overwrought, but Haggis also pulls a few surprises, a few moments that completely jolt the audience.
What surprised me were some of the performances. Yes, we know we're going to get a great one from Don Cheadle. The man never disappoints. Here, he again proves why he's one of the best. Dillon plays a despicable cop to perfection - his initial scene with Thandie Newton will make your skin crawl - but he doesn't turn Officer Ryan into a one-dimensional monster. It would have been easy to do so, but Dillon's adds great depth to his persona and, to his credit, makes us care about this person. Surprisingly, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Esposito and Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges turn in performances that I honestly never thought they had in them. After "Crash," why on earth would Bullock ever return to making crappy romantic comedies?
Haggis and Moresco also deal with our nation's post-9/11 intolerance of anyone who even resembles an Arab and our collective ignorance about other cultures. In one telling moment, an Iranian woman washes away racist graffiti and wonders, "When did Persians become Arab?" I don't think the film's anti-gun message is coincidental, either. Haggis makes it clear that our easy access to handguns clearly ignites or exacerbates tense situations.
The film's virtues outweigh its less-than-stellar moments. Despite its flaws, including being less than subtle about being preachy and one too many contrived coincidences, this film makes you think. How many modern American movies can you say that about?