Tried too hard

Rating: 4/10 (18 January 2011)

Crash is not a complete waste of time. I did admire it for its ambitious subject matter, and I thought the first half hour was incredibly well-done. Also the film is well made with some interesting shots, lighting and locations, and the ensemble cast is mostly good particularly Don Cheadle and Matt Dillon. However, for me it was an example of a movie that tried too hard. The direction was efficient and enthusiastic enough, but in the process Crash also has some quite manipulative story-telling that goes off the boil towards the end, an overly-didactic tone, uneven pacing, annoying characters(too many characters too), generic music and some clumsy scripting. Shame really, because this had all the ingredients to be good, but in the end it turned out to be an interesting failure. Also I am afraid I am among those who think Brokeback Mountain was a better film. 4/10 Bethany Cox