Finally, another important movie

Rating: 10/10 (29 May 2006)

Paul Haggis is a gifted writer. You can read his biography here http://imdb.com/name/nm0353673/bio. I heard this was an inspired movie and it has won 26 awards in total. None of this prepared me for the hard-edged reality this movie dishes up. It has some of the same feel as Memento, but this movie has more of a Hollywood look, and less of the quirkiness of Memento. I apologize for giving it a 10 rating despite the fact that it has production flaws. It's just that there isn't anything better out there, and at least one film deserves to get a 10. Haggis has proved that he can direct a great film on a budget, and should be getting even more financial support for his projects in the future.
The film is an ensemble piece that argues that, in a world with Political Correctness, no one is really safe. In LA is where it all happens, about every 5 to 10 years or so, it even snows, at least somewhere, in LA. This film is about what happens one evening when it snows, and during the 24 hours leading up to it. Four of the main characters are members of the LAPD, two others are the District Attourney and his wife. After this is a film maker and his wife, an Iranian shopkeeper and his daughter, a Mexican-American man and his daughter, and two street hoodlums. The script and camera make plenty of use of parallelism and foreshadowing. For the most part the story pivots and weaves amongst these 14 characters, allowing our minds to make whatever connections we find most suitable. We may side for or against any of the characters at any one time, but if we do, it is merely a temporary illusion that has allowed us to do that, an illusion as apparitional as race itself.
The Crash, which occurs, is merely a metaphor for the life-changing event which will occur in the life of most of the main characters. A transformation, in each case, that was "meant" to happen.
In the end, almost all of the survivors have undergone a transformation, and not merely a "spiritual" transformation. The transformation is usually that their life has changed and they will never be the same person again that they were before the "Crash". One of the deeper interpretations of this movie may be that we should perhaps be someone other than who we are, but we have not yet realized the reality that exists within us because we have ignored or suppressed it day after day in our quest for a peaceful, secure lifestyle.
You can place this movie next to Fargo and Casablanca in your collection, and be assured, it will not wear out its welcome.