stereotyping while trying not to

Rating: 3/10 (2 October 2005)

The problem with this film is that it wants too much. It's basic goal is to show that all Americans have good and bad in them regardless of race / ethnicity, and that circumstances lead to certain actions. It wants to show that we are all prejudice. However, by trying to do the impossible of picking representatives of each group, it ends up doing the opposite of it's goal. We are supposed to leave the cinema having some sympathy and understanding for them all: The racist cop (who also risked his life and loves his dad), the rich housewife (who is lonely and loves her maid), the car-jacker (who is funny, and saves the slaves). But what about the Chinese? In the end they were portrayed as only bad. She was a bitch, and he was a slave- trader. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like the film if I was Asian. And where was the Muslim representation? It was unjustified that the Persians were treated badly because they were mistaken for being Arab. So would it have been okay if they were Muslim? And if everyone was supposed to be portrayed as good and bad, then why were the Hispanic only good? Don't get me wrong, I liked the locksmith and his family, I am just trying to say that inevitably everyone is not shown equally good and bad, and thereby the film creates it's own prejudice.
I admire what the director tries to do and find it an important topic, but I found the film quite predictable, very sentimental and American, and not at all experimental or new in it's cinematic approach. The film can never be compared to the likes of Magnolia, because it is just not clever or surprising or shocking. Maybe only to people who don't have a clue that racism exists and who are surprised that we are fundamentally all the same despite our cultural differences.