Fresh and captivating, but contrived and goes nowhere with its theme

Rating: 6/10 (19 July 2005)

I went into the movie with high expectations given its IMDb rating. However, the movie seemed to be satisfied skipping along the surface of its theme of racism without ever exploring it. It simply demonstrated a sequence of contrived events putting racist characters face to face with other racist characters. It did that masterfully, but there was no coherent message in it all. Some characters undergo VERY cheesy epiphanies, the rest though stay pretty much exactly the same. Sandra Bullock's role in the movie was so pathetically one-dimensional it's a wonder it wasn't cut. Don Cheadle's role was pretty much entirely irrelevant...he contributed nothing to the movie except a sad-looking, pensive face the entire time.