Almost Great

Rating: 6/10 (30 July 2006)

I just watched Crash. Through most of the movie, I was able to forgive the contrivances that sometimes strain credibility, because the movie was delving into areas of complex race relations that often are neglected. Unfortunately, this movie takes a few huge wrong turns. First, its only Asian couple is negatively portrayed (and for the female half, stereotyped) beyond belief--the woman is a bad driver, she hysterically screams in barely intelligible English with L's replacing R's, and the man turns out to be involved in smuggling illegal Asian workers into the country and is more interested in cashing his payment for his smuggling than in his own well-being. Second, the Middle Eastern father is not much more than a shrill, xenophobic, proud, and ultimately violent man. And finally, the seemingly enlightened cop (Ryan Philippe) suddenly and inexplicably turns into his bigoted ex-partner in the middle of a conversation in a car, after risking his life earlier in the film to right a wrong committed by his ex-partner against an African-American couple whom he did not know.
You may say in the movie's defense that it does not have several hours to fully explore race relations among so many different ethnic groups. I agree that you have to give up some breadth in exchange for depth, but I will point out that the movie does not have to include negative portrayals and stereotypes for various ethnic groups if it does not have the time to examine those portrayals and stereotypes in depth. These mistakes (I hope they were mistakes) end up leaving a bigoted taint on this movie, which is all the more ironic and tragic considering that this movie seems to be trying to confront racial discrimination and open a constructive discourse on the utter stupidity and destructiveness of racial discrimination. What a shame!