Awesome movie

Rating: 10/10 (7 December 2006)

I think the first thing I need to mention are my preconceptions before first seeing this movie. I do this as I think your view of a movie can be affected by your preconceptions. For example I am sure I do not rate Gladiator as highly as it deserves due to the fact I caught it late on DVD after I had heard and read people raving on about how great it was, I was disappointed at least partially due to my expectations being overly high.
With Crash however although I did not catch it until after it had won the Oscar I was not convinced it was going to be a great movie as I was indifferent about the cast and on reading the cover I could see it looked like one of those movies which would either work or just be an incoherent mess. Besides "Gladiator" and "A Beautiful Mind" had won Oscars in recent years  both of which I do not rate that highly! I was slightly worried by the opening scene, it features Cheadle (probably the actor involved I rated highest before seeing this movie) but seemed to contain awkward dialogue, was not particularly visually inspiring and bottom line just failed to grab me. However the scene was just a setup scene out of context as the movie quickly moves into the true first act set a day before within the time line of the story.
The story quickly progresses to show various characters from different walks of life within the city of Los Angeles living through the previous 24 hours. All of the stories involve the subject of racism and all end up being intermingled in the style of previous films such as the brilliant Magnolia.
The script is often funny whilst at other times heart breaking and even though it has the sense of being contrived with the aim of getting an emotional response from its viewers it can be forgiven for this because at the end of the day it does work.
For me a major revelation was Matt Dillon, he is one of those actors I had not seen much of before for whatever reason and he shone for me in a truly first class believable performance.
I won't spoil the plot for those who are yet to see the movie but the road accident scene involving him and Newton is plain awesome and I love the interaction between them in the car and the way although his prejudices are wrong they do not in themselves define him as a bad person - just a messed up one.
The film is not without its critics and many think it is Hollywood dribble with no clear or relevant message. I believe it shows none of us to be without prejudice of some form or another even if this is sometimes hardly a conscious thing.