The Truth Hurts Only When It Should!

Rating: 10/10 (20 June 2005)

Paul Haggis pulls back the veil of hypocrisy in an effort to reveal that all species human, regardless of their class, status or skin hue possess varied levels of racism that almost always seem to find their way to the surface in times of crisis.
The movie pulls no punches, but I for one, though at times felt shaken up never felt beaten up. At times felt saddened, but never felt abandoned. If Haggis was preaching, it wasn't brimstone and hellfire, and it certainly wasn't to the choir. It was more like a modern book of "Revelations," and either you get it or you don't! Painful? Sometimes. But almost always poignant and often surprisingly funny, Haggis makes certain no one escapes his magnifying glass. At times the malevolence that spews from the lips of Sandra Bullock (The DAs wife) or Shaun Toub (The Persian shop owner) is brutal and is deliberately exceedingly uncomfortable. But for Haggis it's like a detox program on the road to recovery.
The tapestry is woven with purpose and coincidence that may preach and pound but it never hems or haws or equivocates. It's the kind of film that tries to prove that an audience 'can handle the truth' (sorry Jack!).
L.A. is a cultural melting pot and serves perfectly as an authentic backdrop for the movie's message and tone. Here Haggis paints a cinematic mural of his City of Angels. A city of hate, hope and redemption.
In my opinion, "Crash" is never bleak, just refreshingly honest. It's funny, sad, poignant and finally, in its own way...healing.