Social Consciousness Awaken without Annoying Didactic Lesson

Rating: 10/10 (18 May 2005)

The movie attempts to tackle a deep and profound topic. Surprisingly, it pulls it off. Crash is not merely a movie with a good cast. It is a movie with an amazing plot that happens to have a wonderful cast. Bullock, as always, is amazing. Although her role is small compared to her recent films, she manages to make her performance worth noting.
The lead characters of the movie, however, are Don Cheadle and Matt Dillon. They both deliver amazing performances. Ludicrous surprises the world by showing he is not merely a rapper, but an actor, and a pretty good one at that. Ryan Phillipe is also delivers a great performance. But enough about the acting and more about the movie:
Don Cheadle's character sums up the plot in his first line of the movie, which goes something like: in L.A. people don't really interact, everyone lives their own life without realizing those around them. That is why sometimes we have to crash just so we realize that we are alive.
The movie then travels through a labyrinth of a series of plots that at one point or another all connect to each other. Each character is prejudice in some way or another. One minute you are enraged by a character's words and actions and the next you sympathize with him/her and understand why it is they act the way they do. After realizing that they are partially justified for their prejudism, you are left wondering who's side to take in every argument.
The movie also tackles the idea of fate and free will. Do the characters really have free will or are their actions solely a product of what life has forced them to experience? Most importantly, the movie brings about all these questions and issues without sounding preachy. You do not feel you are being fed some propaganda. You are merely a spectator in an amazing roller coaster ride that does not attempt to answer the big questions. It simply presents them and leaves people to do what most do not want to: think.
And so you leave the theater thinking: is this movie in line for an Oscar? It should be.