Should have won an Emmy not an Oscar

Rating: 6/10 (15 March 2006)

This movie has polarised opinion from those who believe it to be a masterful and seminal depiction of petty racism in today's America, and those who believe it is stereotypical, badly scripted nonsense. Really, it cannot be said to be that bad - but is it really 'Best Film' good? I rented Crash after Oscar night because, like most others given its Box-office gross, it had passed me by in the cinema. This was the film smart enough to outrun Brokeback mountain in the final furlong of the awards season. On what basis, has to be asked. Script, performances, message? All of which could be expected from a network special - although Sandra Bullock has not been reduced to doing TVMs yet so is, here, reassuringly dreadful as an L.A. W.A.S.P bitch. Otherwise, it's a mildly diverting set of story strands set in present day L.A expressed in the not wholly original terms of agitated Persian immigrants, poor latinos, misguided youths, alienated whites, corrupted cops and middle class blacks struggling against tacit racism and their own sense of inferiority. All of are markedly familiar, but in the context of 'Crash' put into a stew and stirred up with some dubious coincidences mixed into the plot. There are moments of tension, pathos (admittedly verging on rank sentimentalism) and humour but nothing revelatory or 'pushing the envelope' of racial depiction as some admirers suggest. Nor, indeed is the portmanteau format of interveawing stories in Los Angeles in itself original.