a brilliant look at human folly

Rating: 10/10 (12 November 2005)

Paul Haggis deserves tons of praise for this gritty Altmanesque masterpiece; truly great writing and insight into tragedy. The film defies the usual ho-hum Hollywood practice of using one dimensional cutouts for characters. In Crash, you may feel you have someone pegged and they they do something that blows your opinion to shreds. The tragedy is usually produced by "perfect storms': conflations of confusions and misunderstandings. The acting is first rate; Matt Dillon is outstanding, Don Cheadle is great as always. I was surprised that a Canadian wrote the story since it has such a dead- on sense of the US inner city street scene. Paul Haggis deserves serious credit for this one.