Film searches deeply within

Rating: Null/10 (9 March 2006)

It's been quiet some time since this movie came out. I saw it when it was first released in theatres. I'm back to comment on it, as it got some bashing for it's Oscar awards. Frankly, in the year 2005 - there weren't any top notch, note worthy films of mass appeal. There wasn't.
I remember thinking: This movie will be overlooked. Theoretically, the award voters only remember movies from the last few months of a calendar year. I was surprised to see Crash was nominated - they hadn't forgotten it. I haven't forgotten that movie either. It's one of the rare times that a movie connects with an audience. It makes you: squirm, wince, look away like you've been slapped, slack jawed - the gamut of human emotions.
People who blow off this movie can't relate to it, because their lives have been truly untouched. Untouched by, and naive of anything as traumatically experienced by the characters in this movie. The characters in this movie attempt this as well. To be insensitive to others' emotions and traumas. And the cause-and-effect they and others have on each other in the world. They portray realistic people trying to carry on in a cold unfeeling world.
This world where people blow this movie off. They have not experienced what the characters have, nor know of anyone close to them that has. The world of soap bubbles, balloons, cars for birthdays, and occasionally family members that die of very old age.
I wasn't a huge fan of Matt Dillon and his filmography of d-uh characters. Crash was the 12th movie I've seen him in. This is the first one that Dillon impressed me with. (The Flamingo Kid was enjoyable, and still makes me laugh, but I digress.) Matt Dillon was strikingly realistic in this movie. His character was beyond three dimensional. The entire cast was noteworthy, and it's difficult to pick just one outstanding actor in it. He was nominated for an Oscar in a supporting role. That's a puzzle to me. If you've seen the movie, it's an interwoven multi-story lined movie. There were no leads in this movie. It's that strong of a powerhouse cast.
This movie kept me awake for much of the night afterwards. It was disturbingly realistic. I know people like those people. It was only the second movie I walked out of in my entire life. The first one was Mississippi Burning. That one, I left completely, and never saw it until it came out on video. With Crash, well I'm older now. With that, I left and paced the lobby during a particular scene. It was too much for me to watch. I cameback, and the person I went with filled me in on those five minutes.