It works; but in such a manipulative manner that I couldn't enjoy it as much as I wanted

Rating: 6/10 (15 June 2006)

The directorial debut of Oscar nominated Million Dollar Baby screenwriter Paul Haggis, Crash takes a close-up look at the lives of a dozen or so Los Angeles citizens over one 36- hour span, and how, when "pushed to the limit", each of these characters will reveal their suppressed prejudice and racism. It is a picture that would really love to be important. It would really love to preach the good word about racism and tolerance in contemporary times, but sadly, it ultimately fails. In an attempt to assert the importance of Crash's message to the masses, Haggis here has taken himself too seriously and the result is quite the opposite: it's a little laughable.
I couldn't help but feel like I was being beaten over the head with the film's message every ten minutes; such is the unnatural, repetitive nature of Haggis screenplay. There is a scene mid-way through the film where two policemen are discussing a crime which may have been racially motivated, and the white policeman spurts, "f**kin' black people, huh?" which almost makes one throw his hands in the air and give up. It's abrupt, ridiculous, and absolutely not the way anybody would naturally react in such a situation. In another instance, a white woman (Sandra Bullock) begins shouting racial slurs about the untrustworthiness of the Latino locksmith (Michael Pena) who's doing her a service, but - here's the kicker - she chooses to do so in the immediate vicinity of the Latino locksmith. Crash is littered with these contrived moments, seemingly written to force characters into situations of racial tension to remind the audience that the film is, in fact, about racism and tolerance (as if by some god-forsaken chance we'd forget!).
Crash is not without it's positives, however. The majority of the ensemble cast do their earnest best with an average script, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges (whose every second word is something ludicrous about black people being mistreated by white people) aside. Matt Dillon gives probably the film's best performance, capturing the struggle and frustration of his situation with believability and conviction, and opposite him, Thandie Newton was superb.
In addition to the good performances, Crash's second act does have two quite powerful sequences: the first involving a collision, both literal and metaphorical, between Dillon's and Newton's characters and the second involving the 5-year old daughter of the Latino locksmith who apparently has devastated a Persian store owner. Not surprisingly, these two situations are some of the more removed from Haggis' subject matter of race in Crash, dealing instead with issues like sexual harassment and a parent's inherent desire to protect their children. Of Million Dollar Baby's calibre this is not, but while I don't doubt Haggis' good intentions for this film, I do indeed doubt his execution.