Does it take a 'crash' to strip bare your soul?

Rating: 8/10 (25 September 2005)

CRASH is provocative, disturbing, controversial and touches the anger, fear, hatred and prejudice inside us all. Intelligently written expose on the interlocking lives of a dozen people brought together by a car crash in Los Angeles. Stereotyping by ethnic backgrounds and sexual persuasion. Matt Dillon is a racist cop. Don Cheadle is a black detective with a Latina partner and lover(Jennifer Esposito). Terrence Howard is a rich TV director and his wife(Thandie Newton)would love to pass for white or resent other than African American. A district attorney(Brendan Fraser)and his highly pretentious wife(Sandra Bullock)are victims of a car-jacking by two young, differently opinionated black men("Ludicrous" Bridges and Larenz Tate). Also in this diverse ensemble: Tony Danza, Ryan Phillipe, Michael Pena, Loretta Devine and Art Chudabala. CRASH is a disparate tale of interaction, reaction, confrontation and racial tolerance. Can't a man do a little bit wrong? Kudos to Paul Haggis for the direction of his own story and screenplay.