Totalled

Rating: 4/10 (21 May 2005)

Watching writer-director Paul Haggis' new film "Crash", I couldn't help thinking about another, much better film with a similar interlocking storyline. That was "Amores Perros" (2001), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's gritty, no-holds-barred meditation on the lives of some fictional citizens in modern day Mexico City. Although the story was an obvious set-up, with a terrible car crash at its center and how that crash affected the lives of several disparate characters, the movie managed to be engrossing and utterly believable in its depiction of varying social castes in a huge metropolis. The film had the feel of a documentary and was so epic-sized in depicting the teeming life of a city that it managed to triumph over the screenplay's contrivances.
"Crash" is a whole other story. Although I can admire the intentions of its creator and the admirable work of a talented cast, the movie didn't work for me on any level. An ambitious contemporary parable about the need for racial tolerance and understanding, "Crash" offers up a nearly endless series of angry rants and speeches by characters who literally collide into each other on the highway or verbally clash in elegant homes, "mom and pop" grocery stores or utilitarian HMO offices. The movie is a frustrating experience because the acting by the entire cast is superb and there are several powerfully dramatic scenes.
Sandra Bullock and Brendan Fraser are perfect as a wealthy suburbanite couple obsessed with image. In fact Bullock has never been better, commanding the screen as a spoiled district attorney's wife whose prejudices erupt when her SUV is hijacked by two young black men. Matt Dillon is equally impressive as a bigoted LAPD cop who sexually harasses a woman whose car he has pulled over, only to attempt to save the same women in a horrific car accident the next day. A hotheaded Iranian store owner unjustly berates a Mexican American locksmith for not fixing the door to his liking after the store has been broken into and burglarized the night before. All these story elements (and several others) come to a dramatic conclusion that is at once operatic as it is mechanical. The fine acting, the grainy, unvarnished cinematography, the taut editing and a foreboding, mournful score can't compensate for the fact that "Crash" is an exercise in manipulation. Paul Haggis allows his characters to preach to the choir instead of giving them a narrative that relies less on shouting and coincidence and more on credible storytelling techniques.