A Pastiche of Racist Stereotypes

Rating: 5/10 (24 April 2006)

This is a movie made with great intentions and a clear point to be made. Unfortunately on the way to making that point the filmmakers let the characters fall by the wayside. What we end up with is a blending of caricatures that fail to evoke sympathy because of their lack of realism. These characters exist simply to be racist and bitter and, with little exception, never show another side of themselves.
The acting is for the most part superb with great performances by Matt Dillon and Terrence Howard which helped to flesh out the shallow roles they were handed.
The plot twists and interaction between the characters were, for the most part, simple and manipulative. The one character we are set up to worry about is painted as saintly with no flaws, just a regular guy trying to do his best while everyone around him is a racist hate machine. There is one child in the film and she serves as a sympathy generating plot device and nothing else; we see no deeper aspect of her other than her fear.
All in all a technically well crafted film with high-quality performances that suffers from a contrived plot and mostly one-dimensional characters. There is nothing particularly striking or innovative in the film's visual style either. It certainly is not worthy of the title of Film of the Year.
If you are looking for films that explore the consequences of human interaction on a deeper level you may want to try 21 Grams which, while relentless and more complicated, is much deeper. You may also want to check out Magnolia, a film that is not only a deeper character study but a greater artistic achievement, both visually and emotionally.