An Excellent Cast for an Uneven and Over-Dramatic Movie

Rating: 6/10 (21 December 2016)

After watching this movie twice, there's a double frustration, first because one might wonder how such a fantastic cast came together on a picture of such questionable taste, and second because this picture shares its name with a masterpiece directed by David Cronenberg, and what are the odds of having two masterpieces with the same name? The movie tackles ever-relevant social issues, the outcome of which is fairly thought provoking. The intention is there and it's a good and smart one. Applause, again, to the players, who, despite an uneven script, are all in top from, from the principal roles like Terrence Howard's director (magnificent) and Brendan Fraser's attorney (possibly the first intelligent role of his career) to secondary characters like the objectified secretary, wonderfully played by Loretta Devine. This is a portmanteau film, meaning that it comprises several plot-lines of almost equal importance instead of the more frequent plot/sub-plots formula. Each plot-line in Crash intertwines with another one way or another. First, let's point out – and this is not a criticism – that this movie is allegedly happening in more or less 48 hours. Thus, the fact that the scenes are clocked begs a realistic depiction of events, theoretically leaving little room for poetic analysis or open interpretations. The impeccable actors are really doing their best with an overdramatic script that forces them to be equally overdramatic and, worst of all, to take their characters and situations a teeny tiny bit too seriously, the exact extra amount of seriousness to make the movie not fun to watch. Sandra Bullock spends almost the whole movie on the telephone complaining about her stolen car and her Latino maid, later opening up her heart to her frustrations during an emotional phone monologue (close-up), after which she (suddenly) falls down the stairs, in a slow-motion shot complete with Kar-Wai strobe, followed by a wide shot of her crying on the floor (in case you didn't get it, she cries due to both physical AND emotional pain). Let's also mention the catastrophic party pooper that is the Iranian's armed confrontation with the Latino locksmith. Seeking revenge over a robbery he blames him for, the Iranian guy confronts the locksmith in front of the latter's house, in broad daylight (because that's what killers do, but the shots are saturated typical Hollywood-style and, of course, are in slow-mo, so let's call it an artistic choice). They exchange very heated F words at the very second when the Latino's kid daughter jumps up to his arms and at the very second the Iranian happens to shoot after holding fire for a good minute. This is still possible in real life, it would be a horrible coincidence but still, this can happen. However, when you thought the movie couldn't possibly force more fake tears into your eyes, that's when the a cappella aerial soprano music kicks in. This is called emotional masturbation. Mind you, this is not a bad movie; this is simply a very disappointing one. And every time you try to give it a chance there's something there to distract you. The labyrinth-like links between characters are typical of portmanteau's but, in this case, the audience gets lost playing the "That's the brother of the cousin of the woman who was in the car, not this car, the car from the scene before" game. You also get the infamous "it's a bitch but life goes on with funky music" ending. Even Mrs. Doubtfire has a more ambiguous ending. Paul Haggis has proved his screen writing competence with several projects, but for this film (which is his directorial debut for the big screen) he might have wanted the script and the shot- list to help each other. Unfortunately they ended up having the opposite reaction to each other. The movie does stick together. And the fact that such a relevant subject matter is delivered by such a competent cast will keep you interested all the way through. The issue here is artistic, as the movie promises more than it delivers.