Good Film, But Rather Blunt

Rating: 7/10 (15 December 2014)

Los Angeles citizens with vastly separate lives collide in interweaving stories of race, loss and redemption.
When this film came out, it was a huge success, both critically and with the general viewer. Looking back a decade later (in 2014), the reason for this is somewhat obscure. Although the film looks great, is well-directed, and has a cast with more than a dozen big names, it is hampered by some rather shoddy writing.
Not five minutes go by without someone making a racist comment. Now, of course, this is the point: to show us how racism is going strong in the 21st century, and it is not just black versus white. But the way it is shown here is just so blunt that it takes away any sort of artistic merit and just makes the film a moralizing, proselytizing screed. A very good one, but still just so solidly plain.