Real People Collide in Crash

Rating: 9/10 (6 May 2005)

Based on his screenplay with Robert Moresco, Paul Haggis makes what is essentially his feature film debut with a thoroughly involving drama of disparate characters in a series of seemingly unrelated events in and around Los Angeles
One evening culminates in a car accident being investigated by police and a grim discovery for one of the detectives. Flashback to the day before as a dozen characters deal with urban survival. A couple of idealistic, black youths carjack an upper class couple who turn out to be the district attorney and his shallow wife. A proud, Persian shop keeper and his wife struggle to keep their business open and safe. A locksmith, who is Hispanic, is also a loving, protective father to his precious five year old daughter. A repressed movie director and his combative wife are pulled over by an aggressive, angry cop and his younger, moral partner. These are people who are haunted by guilt and fear as they strive for some kind of happiness. As events unfold, each set of characters is affected by an apparently random act by another group which has long lasting consequences for all of them.
To detail exactly what happens will spoil a delicate web of plot lines that are mutually supporting one another in almost operatic fashion. Haggis, who adapted the heartbreaking gem, "Million Dollar Baby" (and honed his writing skills on many a television series), has devised an intricate, multi-layered morality play on a grand scale. Borrowing liberally from the story structures of his contemporaries like Paul Thomas Anderson ("Magnolia") and veterans like Robert Altman ("Nashville"), he masters the form with surprising ease and to the audience's edification. He does not dumb down the script but rather treats his audience with intelligence. The dialogue is on occasion wordy and blatant commentary while other times the words carry a bite and sting as they ring true to the human condition. Any edgier dialogue would start to become Tarantino like. Although there are several references to racial intolerance and conflict, these serve as more of a springboard to broader ideas and relationships.
Haggis wisely avoids clichés thus keeping the events and actions fresh and original. When a scene looks like it will end expectedly, something different happens to change its direction in interesting ways. None of the characters is truly good or evil; instead they are full blooded characters who yearn for a better life while tarnished by their current affliction be it economic, physical, or emotional. Just when you think the film will go down a dark path with tragic results, it throws another wrinkle to keep you guessing and pleasantly surprise you. And when tragedy does strike, it happens in an unexpected, ironic way.
Don Cheadle is part of a well cast group of emsemble players, many of whom reduced their payscales to take on what amounted to be supporting work. It doesn't hurt if the script is as strong and well conceived as this one. Cheadle is excellent as the detective who tries to help his mother and his often absent brother. Brandon Fraser and Sandra Bullock play the D.A. and his wife. Terrence Dashon Howard and Thandie Newton play a glamorous Hollywood couple who must confront racial and emotional issues. Matt Dillon and Ryan Phillippe are the policemen whose portrayals begin on opposite ends of the moral spectrum and wind up switching places. Special mention goes to Michael Pena as the locksmith.
The city scenes are photographed with a gritty realism and the music, predominantly led by New Age composer Mark Isham, lends a dreamlike, aura to the film's mood. All the major story lines are followed through by movie's end with hardly a loose end. It is ironic that the film is reminiscent of a lesser, 1970's made-for television drama, "Smashup on Interstate 5".
There are times early in the film that one thinks it will degenerate into a racially charged statement, but it never loses course. The roles both large and small seem more than sketches after awhile. You care about what happens to all of them, even the more criminal elements because they are real people. The film plays like a mosaic or puzzle of fragments and pieces that slowly but satisfyingly come together. Although there are more than a couple of coincidental events and incidents including car accidents that link many of the characters, the improbable happenings are easy to forgive since we are in the hands of a good storyteller. These chance encounters serve as a catalyst or storytelling device to propel the story further.
Crash is an ambitious film with lofty goals that it attains with great frequency. Haggis should be commended for weaving an ambitious tapestry of lives and fate without resorting to easy, simplistic answers.